Oscar Piastri agrees with his teammate Lando Norris: the gap between current leader Mercedes and their own team McLaren looks very large. Although the Australian thinks that the gap was magnified by the chaotic opening laps in Melbourne, he is under no illusion that McLaren can keep up with the Silver Arrows in China: ‘We certainly cannot beat them yet.’
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Mercedes drove dominantly to the first victory in the opening race in Melbourne. George Russell crossed the finish line a good fifteen seconds ahead of third-placed Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque was the only driver who could still take on the fight with the Mercedes driver in the opening phase of the race. The gap from Mercedes to the rest of the field seems large, and Lando Norris therefore already had a gloomy outlook for his own team McLaren after the race. The reigning world champion finished fifth, almost a minute behind race winner Russell.
Gap to Mercedes
Oscar Piastri agrees with his teammate that the gap to Mercedes worries him, he says in China in a look back at the season opener. “The race was chaotic during the first ten laps. It was a very different kind of racing than we’ve had before in Formula 1,” the driver says. Piastri himself had to watch from the sidelines after crashing before the race start. “When drivers started to get used to the regulations a bit, it looked more like previous races.”
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“The gap to Mercedes… it looks pessimistic,” Piastri continues, emphasizing that McLaren did not get around to the planned optimizations during the Australian GP. “We know we have to improve a lot. Hopefully we can get closer, but we can’t beat Mercedes over a full race distance yet. I think however that we can get a lot closer than we were in Melbourne.”
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Read everything about the Chinese GP here
