McLaren’s Oscar Piastri reflects on his and the team’s dominant form in the opening 6 races as the young Aussie prepares for this weekend’s F1 Imola GP.
“I’ve been enjoying the success…”
Speaking in the press conference ahead of this Sunday’s F1 Imola GP, McLaren’s Oscar Piatri shares his thoughts on McLaren’s strong start to 2025. Fresh from his 4th win of the season in Miami, Piastri admits he enjoys the team’s success.
Delving deeper into his comment, he explained his and McLaren’s pace in 2025 has made their success more enjoyable. While he enjoys scoring podiums and victories, he claims the work behind the scenes makes the success all the more sweet.
“It’s pretty hard to say that I’m not,” Piastri quipped when asked if he was enjoying the current run of form. “When you’ve won four out of six, it’s been a great start.
“I’ve been enjoying the success we’ve been having on track, but for me what’s been very satisfying is all the work we’ve done behind the scenes to achieve that. It’s quite a different feeling when you win a race because you feel like you’ve just gotten by or had good circumstances.
“But to now be winning because we have an incredibly quick car and I feel like I’m driving well, that’s very satisfying. Of course, I’ve been enjoying standing on the podium as well. But more so the hard work behind the success.”
“We were looking forward to [Miami]…”
When asked further about McLaren’s advantage over the rest of the field, specifically in Miami, Oscar Piastri played down their fortunes. While he acknowledged the team had a spectacular pace advantage over their nearest rival, he placed the credit with the circuit.
He claimed the Miami circuit suits the MCL39, allowing the team to maximise their pace.
“I think we saw a similar thing in Melbourne in the wet conditions,” he recalled. “But Miami was potentially a circuit we were looking forward to from pretty early on.
“With the hotter temperatures, given some of the sessions we’d had earlier in the season, we thought that might play more to our strengths. And I think Sunday in Miami proved that.”
While he acknowledged the team’s advantage in Miami, Piastri noted that it will be difficult to replicate on a weekly basis. Once again, he cited the beneficial track conditions and characteristics as a key factor.
“I’m not expecting that to be the case every weekend,” he explained. “I would love that to be the case, but in those hotter conditions and that circuit characteristic, it worked well for us. I think it’ll be difficult to repeat that consistently. We’ll see what we can do.”
“I expect the competition to be closer…”
Looking ahead to this weekend’s Grand Prix in Imola, Oscar Piastri predicted a much more competitive weekend. Although he continued to play his cards close to his chest, the McLaren man shared hints. He suggested that the MCL39 may not be as well suited to the Imola circuit.
“I don’t know,” he replied when asked if we can expect another dominant McLaren performance. “We’ve got very soft tyres this weekend, so maybe that will help us. But it’s a lot cooler than it was in Miami. The track is also incredibly different – much bumpier, much higher speeds in general.
“I expect the competition to be closer than it was in Miami. We saw in qualifying that the competition was on our heels and ahead of us. So we still have to make sure we go out and execute everything as well as we can, because if we fall through a little bit, then we’ve got plenty of competition that can beat us.”
