Join now and get your first month for just $1 ><\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThis weekend with all their new parts, clearly they\u2019re working well,\u201d Piastri said after the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think also in a race like today where the grip is so low, the tyres are so fragile. I think it probably plays to the strengths of their car as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019ve got a lot of downforce. Probably the most downforce out of everybody. But also a lot of drag.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you need to protect the tyres, I think that helps you.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo clearly some work for us to do, clearly some work for me to do, because it was not an easy race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifth-placed Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren. Photo by Peter Fox\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
McLaren team principal Andrew Stella also acknowledged the \u201cdifficulties\u201d the Woking-based team has faced this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw a definite step forward today in our ability to compete with the front-runners, which is encouraging after the difficulties we faced in the last couple of races,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good news that we were able to stay with Mercedes, and we can take positives from our improved reliability this weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, Ferrari has clearly made significant performance gains, with recent upgrades now positioning them as race winners. Therefore, as competitors, we know there is more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri is currently sixth on the drivers\u2019 standings with 68 points, five behind Norris, while McLaren sits third on the constructors\u2019 championship, below Ferrari and Mercedes.<\/p>\n
The Melburnian still leads Norris 4-3 in both qualifying and race results \u2014 partly because the British driver has had two retirements this season \u2014 but Piastri\u2019s struggles haven\u2019t gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot going too well for him as of late. His market value has taken a bit of a plunge in the last weeks and months,\u201d former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bit unexpected because last year he was really on a par with Lando all the time, and this year Lando has jumped ahead somewhat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith these new regulations, new cars, Oscar is not feeling too comfortable yet. So it\u2019s a bit strange and he really needs to work on that now because he\u2019s falling down.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia. AP Photo\/Fatima ShbairSource: AP<\/p>\n
Former F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve continued: \u201cWell we saw the trend last year. Halfway through the season he was the talk of the paddock, like it\u2019s great they signed him because he showed it in Formula 3, Formula 2 \u2013 amazing,\u201d Villeneuve said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then he collapsed, and his form went down, and he hasn\u2019t recovered. It\u2019s really odd.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd nobody\u2019s talking about him anymore. And that\u2019s in the space of what? Like six months. Even less.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very odd. But like we often say, you\u2019re only as good as your last race. That\u2019s what\u2019s tough with sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless you\u2019re Lewis and you\u2019ve won so many championships and so on. Then, okay, you get there\u2019s something you can lean on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut otherwise, two, three bad races, and okay, move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The F1 season resumes with the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, June 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian F1 driver Oscar Piastri has come under heavy scrutiny following an underwhelming performance during Sunday\u2019s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-737179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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