Piastri: “I’m starting to understand how the car behaves. We’re making progress”

Piastri seeks redemption The shakedown in Barcelona ends with encouraging signs for McLaren, which can archive an initial week of constructive testing. The MCL40 has racked up the kilometres, and although the distances covered were not at the levels of Mercedes and Ferrari due to some small stumbles in terms of reliability, the mood of the team, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri is positive. This is a precious job, a useful basis also for the Australian, a driver eager for redemption after a 2025 that was dominated for a long time but ruined by a subdued final part of the season. The 80 laps recorded on the final day were very productive and allowed Piastri to identify the areas on which to work on the simulator in view of the Bahrain tests (11-13 February, 18-20 February). Piastri’s words “It was a much calmer day than the first two. It was positive to be able to complete a good number of laps and find the right rhythm. I’m starting to understand how the car behaves, we have already tried different configurations and settings to understand how it behaves during the race weekend. Overall, the priority this week was clear: understand the car and improve it”, this was the comment of #81 after day-5. “There is still a lot to learn, especially regarding the power unit. My and Lando’s feedback is proving to be invaluable. We have also identified some differences compared to last year at chassis level, with the car having more downforce, getting used to this balance was a fundamental objective.” “Looking at Bahrain, we feel well prepared. There have been no major surprises in how I have to drive, ensuring that everything works as expected remains the main focus. We will look at what met our expectations, what didn’t meet them and everything interesting we have discovered so far,” he added. “Overall, it was a positive step in the right direction to start the year, thanks to the whole team for working hard to prepare the car and make this possible.”