McLaren swings, from the Sprint double to the difficulties in Qualifying. Piastri Sibillino: “Unexpected behavior from the PU”

Sprint dominated, then a step back The papaya-coloured Saturday in Miami was certainly full of emotions: first came the one-two in the Sprint, with Norris first and Piastri second, which inevitably brought the McLaren fans back to the glories of the last two years; but then the qualifying, held on the Italian evening, provided a completely different response. Norris, who had taken pole in the Sprint qualifying, did not go beyond fourth place and Piastri even finished Q3 in seventh place. “For us it was a see-sawing day – admitted Norris in the end-of-day interviews – this morning we did a good Sprint. On Friday we managed to make the most of the car when the others failed to do so and this morning, in clean air conditions, we managed to manage the race with a certain ease. This afternoon, however, our rivals simply demonstrated their abilities, while we struggled more with the car in conditions of higher temperatures and stronger winds. However, fourth place is not a bad result and is certainly a step ahead of the previous races – acknowledged the reigning champion – and the team still did a good job to obtain this result. We need to analyze the data to fully understand where we have lost ground compared to our competitors. We will see what the weather has in store for us tomorrow, it looks like it will be a wet race, which will be interesting given that we have never driven these cars in the wet. We will prepare this evening and make sure we are as ready as possible for the Grand Prix.” Piastri only on the fourth row. Even more complicated was the afternoon for Piastri, who will start from the fourth row in the race and complained – between the lines – of some problems with the Mercedes power unit: “In qualifying the changeable wind, the high temperatures, the variable grip of the track and some unexpected behavior of the engine meant that some things did not work as expected, especially in Q3, so there is a lot to analyse. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull seem to have taken a step forward from Sprint, with lap times much closer than we expected. Looking at the race the weather forecast makes things incredibly interesting, we will work as much as possible during the night and see what we can do in the race,” concluded the Australian.

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-05-03 17:21:00