Piastri, optimism for Miami
Formula 1 is finally back: Miami, weather permitting, will be the first opportunity for the teams to show the progress made in the factory during this forced break. It is a stage that McLaren eagerly awaits: here Lando Norris achieved his first career victory, while in 2025 the Woking team won both the Sprint and the GP, beating the entire competition by almost 40″; moreover, the papaya team showed improvements in Suzuka, achieving their first podium thanks to Oscar Piastri, who raced on par against the superior Mercedes of George Russell.
In light of the progress seen in Japan, the work done in Woking, and the updates anticipated by team principal Andrea Stella, the Australian showed optimism in the press conference that opened the Miami weekend. According to him, the developments on the MCL40 are a step in the right direction, although they will probably not be enough to close the gap with Mercedes.
Words from Piastri
“We hope to be faster with the updates. But we have to wait to see exactly what the outcome will be. I think they are a step in the right direction, but I don’t think they are enough to challenge Mercedes already this weekend. We expect many other teams to bring updates, but I hope ours are better,” this was his comment. “I think the motivation and confidence of the team are high. We are back on a positive path. It was nice to finish the Suzuka race in second place, it gave us a bit of confidence back. We hope to continue well by making a good step forward. Can we hope for the title with the new rules? I don’t think the hierarchies will change that much. If we look at the overall picture, these are very small changes. Clearly, Mercedes are very strong at the moment, we hope to get closer. I think the championship is far from over, we need to find performance quite quickly if we want to be seriously in the fight for the title. I know we are bringing new things this weekend and will have more in the near future, hopefully they will be enough at least to put us in the fight.”
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Piastri then commented with moderate satisfaction on the regulation changes made in recent days: “I think the collaboration has been positive. Trying to make changes is definitely a step in the right direction. I don’t know how much it will help us solve the problems, I don’t think it can solve them completely because the power unit structure would need to be completely rethought, but it is a step forward. There were many ideas after Suzuka, after the incidents we saw. But something had to be changed, it was clear. They listened to us and that is positive, but intervention could only go so far. We tried to change what was possible: from the simulator, some things seemed a bit improved to me, others didn’t seem different at all, but we will see how it goes on track. Regarding safety, the change seems sensible to me and I believe it reduces the danger, even if it cannot completely eliminate an episode where a driver has several kW less power than the one following him.”
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