Oscar Piastri has doubled down on his criticism of Formula 1\u2019s \u201cfrustrating\u201d new technology as McLaren attempts to salvage its season with much-needed upgrades in Hungary, which the Australian hoped would put the team a \u201cbit closer to being able to fight\u201d.<\/p>\n
Driver concerns over the sport\u2019s controversial machinery refuses to go away with Piastri the latest to lash out after last week\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
After a frustrating weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Piastri said post-race that F1 qualifying grids were now being decided by \u201ccomputers behaving or misbehaving\u201d, which was a \u201cpretty crap way of going racing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Piastri finished fifth in Spa after being hampered by damage following a contentious clash with Charles Leclerc during the race, while his qualifying was compromised by power unit anomalies.<\/p>\n
While Piastri did not expect the impact of power deployment issues to be as significant at this weekend\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix as at Spa, he again underlined his concerns over the impact of the technology that was \u201chard to get your head around\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I joined Formula 1, those engines were incredibly mature, but also the penalty of things being slightly wrong, or slightly out of place was significantly less because it was such a small percentage of the overall power you got,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas this year, it\u2019s basically half your power, so any small differences or anything that doesn\u2019t quite go right has a massive impact, especially as a track like Spa. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got no control over where the deployment happens, more or less \u2026 in Spa when you\u2019ve got those differences there that you have no control over, it can be frustrating.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a track like Spa or a track like Silverstone, it\u2019s going to be worse. Here (Hungary), I really don\u2019t expect there to be many problems at all with that kind of thing because the straights are so much shorter, so even if there are differences, they should be a lot less.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the principle of driving a race car that loses effectively half its power before the end of the straight is hard to get your head around sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Four-time world champion Max Verstappen has been the most outspoken critic of this season\u2019s new regulations, airing his concerns about them before the season had even started, and he said more drivers were now sharing his view.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken my mind about these regulations already a long time,\u201d Verstappen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning most people were saying, \u2018Ah, he\u2019s complaining, he should shut up\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I have to say that the last few races, more and more people are seeing the same thing that I could see already a long time ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s not about me winning anymore, it\u2019s just because I care about the product.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of the last race before the summer break, McLaren will introduce what the team has described as \u201ca valuable package of upgrades\u201d for the Hungarian Grand Prix, including a new floor and other aerodynamic parts.<\/p>\n
The papaya squad has won the last two races at the Hungaroring and Piastri was hopeful the upgrades would make the team \u201ca bit more competitive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a few upgrades this weekend, so hopefully that puts us a bit closer to being able to fight,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in Spa, certainly in the race, we were probably a bit more competitive than we expected, so that was a good thing. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be faster. That\u2019s all I care about. I feel like we\u2019ve got a pretty good track record with upgrades, for the most part, and how they perform in the sim versus reality, so fingers crossed it just makes us quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri sits sixth in the driver standings \u2013 112 points behind Mercedes\u2019 leader Kimi Antonelli \u2013 and is still in pursuit of a first win this season.<\/p>\n
He has managed just two podiums in Japan and Miami, but has not been on the dais since the start of May.<\/p>\n
Asked to rate his campaign so far at the halfway point of the season, Piastri said there had been \u201chighs and lows\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cProbably more lows than highs, unfortunately,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us as a team, it\u2019s obviously not been the first half of the year that we would have liked, especially compared to last year, so hopefully the second half of the year can be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor myself as well, there have been some good moments, some not-so-good moments and pretty much everything in between.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be able to improve and be a bit more consistently on top of my game and hopefully we can do that this weekend and in the second half of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has doubled down on his criticism of Formula 1\u2019s \u201cfrustrating\u201d new technology as McLaren attempts 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