Norris and Piastri raise their hands: “P6 and P7 reflect our strength”

McLaren no longer turns on A year has passed, but it seems like a decade has passed since the 2025 Austrian GP, ​​dominated by McLaren. The world champions have approached the new technical cycle with a lower tone than Mercedes and Ferrari (and this may not be a coincidence considering the championship fight up until the last GP against Max Verstappen) and are now paying the consequences of a late development. The papayas closed the qualifying for the Austrian GP with Lando Norris sixth and Oscar Piastri seventh, a result that the team considers in line with the current level of competitiveness of the MCL40, but which represents a step back compared to the expectations of the day before. The car did not start in the key moment, Q3, where it was clearly overtaken by Verstappen and the Ferraris. In the garage, however, there is satisfaction at having exploited all the current potential of the single-seater. Norris’ words “Overall, it was a good day, sixth place is a result that reflects our situation. It’s easy to look at the free practice times and hope for something more, but we know that the cars in front of us are strong, as we have seen throughout the season. Realistically, this is our current position, but we have our strengths that we will try to exploit and we are close enough to fight tomorrow”, this is the comment of the world champion. “The race will take place in incredibly high temperatures and tire degradation will be a determining factor, just like in Barcelona. A lot can happen with strategy and pit stops, but if we can manage the race well and take advantage of every opportunity, we will be able to achieve a good result.” Piastri’s words “The P7 realistically reflects our current situation”, added Piastri. “We’ve done a good job optimizing our package, the lap times between myself and Lando have been incredibly close throughout the weekend – this suggests we’ve got almost everything we can out of the car. We’re missing that bit of speed compared to our closest rivals. We know Mercedes have an advantage and Ferrari are strong, we know the areas where we need to improve.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-28 04:15:00