After a challenging weekend, Oscar Piastri managed to overtake Charles Leclerc on the final lap of the Miami Grand Prix to secure a podium finish. Despite the difficulties encountered, the Australian driver still delivered a strong result, taking second place in the Sprint Race and third in Sunday’s main event. It is therefore an excellent outcome, allowing both the number 81 driver and McLaren to gain ground in the world championship standings, also thanks to the valuable points scored by Lando Norris.
The Woking-based team is now firmly back in contention for both world titles. However, Piastri knows that starting from the Canadian Grand Prix, he will need to make another step forward, particularly in terms of consistency—an area that ultimately cost him last season’s championship, which ended up in the hands of his teammate.
Piastri: “Clear steps forward in terms of performance”
The Australian driver openly acknowledged the difficulties faced during the Miami weekend: “It wasn’t the easiest weekend, qualifying was a bit chaotic, but the pace today looked more encouraging. I had to make a few overtakes and, of course, the comeback came quite late, but this circuit is very tricky, especially in these conditions.”
Piastri also spoke about McLaren’s improvements, particularly following the upgrades introduced for the Miami round. “Clearly, we are a step closer in terms of performance, which is positive, and we’ve shown that if we get into a good track position, we can hold it. In Japan we were close, but we are definitely taking a step forward, and hopefully in Canada we can take another one.”
Strong starts and race pace recovery
Piastri then highlighted one of the strengths of the MCL40, particularly its launch off the line: “I made a very good start. Turn 2 was quite interesting again. I was obviously trying to decide which direction to go. I think our starts as a team have always been strong, and today was another good one.”
Reflecting on his race and how he secured a podium finish, he added: “After that, the pace was strong. In the first stint before the Safety Car, I made a few mistakes and didn’t perform as well as I hoped. But I think the second half of the race was much smoother. The pace was definitely better, and I managed to catch George and, of course, Charles at the end. So I’m very happy.”
Mercedes threat remains ahead of Canada
Piastri also looked ahead to the ongoing battle with Mercedes, which is expected to continue in the upcoming races: “It will be interesting to see where we stand on different tracks. Especially in the Sprint part of this weekend, getting a one-two finish purely on pace was a nice surprise for us. So things are working well. We expected the upgrades to be a good step forward, and they have been, and hopefully they will be again in Canada. But obviously Mercedes didn’t bring much this weekend, and they also have an upgrade package for Canada, so we’ll have to wait and see how strong that will be for them.”
FIA changes and overtaking challenges
Finally, Piastri discussed the regulatory adjustments introduced by the FIA in Miami and whether they helped address the issues seen earlier in the season: “I think reducing the harvesting limit in qualifying has helped a bit. It hasn’t solved the problem or all the problems, but it has helped with one of them. The races are pretty much the same, and I think today was my first real experience of overtaking and then having to defend and things like that. It’s pretty crazy, to be honest.”
The McLaren driver also highlighted a major difference compared to Formula 1 in previous years: “At one point George was a second behind me and managed to pass me at the end of the straight. It’s a bit random. The closing speeds are huge, and trying to anticipate them as a defending driver is incredibly difficult. And obviously, for the driver overtaking, I wasn’t very happy with one of George’s moves, but I found myself doing almost the same move about five laps later simply because the closing speed is so big. So from that point of view, not much has changed.”
Despite some improvements, the Australian believes there is still significant room for progress: “I think the collaboration between the FIA and Formula 1 has been good, but there are only so many things you can change with the hardware we have. So I think changes will definitely be needed in the future. How quickly we can make them is the big question.”
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