F1 is arriving in the principality this weekend, and Oscar Piastri is still the championship leader going into the Monaco GP. After finishing second place in Imola, the Australian is confident of the McLaren car’s pace around the tricky and tight circuit.
Piastri on confidence going into the F1 Monaco GP
“I think we thought that going into last weekend, and it turned out pretty differently,” Piastri said in his print media session when reminded of Red Bull’s struggles last year, adding Ferrari to the fight: “We might see Ferrari back in the mix here, they’ve always been strong here in the past few years, but I think we’re confident in the pace that we’ve got.
”I think we’ve kind of looked through Imola and debriefed what we could have done better from a few fronts, but I think we are confident that we’re still the team to beat this weekend, and confident that we’re coming quick.”
Reviewing the previous race
Oscar Piastri could have extended his lead at the Imola Grand Prix even further last weekend, but Max Verstappen was able to return to victorious form. He believes without Verstappen’s overtake manoeuvre at Turn 1, that decided the race, the McLaren driver would have expected an interesting race.
“I have reviewed it, I think just a brake later, that was a pretty simple analysis,” he said. “But I think it would have been an interesting race, regardless of how Turn 1 went, or how Turn 2 went. I think Red Bull had at least as much pace as us on Sunday, whether they were faster or not.
”I don’t really know, not really that bothered because it’s such a small gap that we’re talking about, but Max would have been a threat regardless of what happened in the first half.”
Tyre management in Imola
”I think Red Bull have been putting some upgrades on the car,” Piastri said, when asked about the tyre management, that was not as good as in previous races, compared to Red Bull: “I think they have been fine in performance, and I think Imola is a circuit that, in terms of layout and speed, is not that dissimilar to Suzuka and Jeddah, which were two tracks that Red Bull were also fast on.
”So I think maybe the race pace was a bit of a surprise for us, but the fact that they were quick through the weekend was not a big surprise, so we’ve got to keep working hard, there’s going to be a lot more tracks like that,but I think it’s going to be interesting to see on slower tracks, here’s obviously an exception, but some of the tracks coming up, whether they’re still just as good.”
Handling the rollercoaster while travelling constantly
”I mean it’s been busy, now we’re obviously getting to the European part of the season, minus a trip to Canada in the middle, so it’s a little bit more simple now, it’s still busy, but there’s not been too many downs, obviously Melbourne was certainly not enough, but it’s been a nice kind of roll since then.
”Imola was… a reality check is too harsh, but it was a reminder that not everything is going to go perfectly this year, and we’ve got to try and learn from those days, myself very much included, to be strong everywhere,” Piastri concluded.
