Far from the success Lando Norris had in Spain, Oscar Piastri had a rather anonymous meeting in Barcelona. The young Australian was not in the running throughout the weekend. First in qualifying: the McLaren driver did not set any time in Q3, with a first time cancelled for non-compliance with track limits, then a second attempt aborted after an error in the third sector.
Forced to start ninth when at the same time, Lando Norris started from pole position, Oscar Piastri remained stuck in the middle of the peloton, fighting against the Alpine and against the Red Bull of Sergio Pérez. Seventh at the checkered flag, the Melbourne native noted “a bit of a difficult weekend” at the finish of the Spanish Grand Prix.
“I think 7th place was enough [un résultat] realistic before the race. I got closer to Carlos [Sainz] in the end, but I just didn’t have the pace this weekend in general, so I need to figure out why that was the caseunderlines the 23-year-old pilot. Obviously when you qualify that far it makes life very difficult, so you just have to understand why it was so difficult. »
Piastri without explanation
Disillusioned by his Catalan poor performance, Oscar Piastri could not find an explanation for his lack of rhythm. “I think some things are explainable, but others may not make as much sense at the moment, but we haven’t studied it in detail yet. So I think there are some clues here and there, but I think the scale of these difficulties has been greater than what makes sense at the moment, and so we need to understand why this was the case. »
A simple error in the course – so far without fault – of the Australian this season? Difficult to think otherwise, especially considering previous performances (2nd in Monaco, 5th in Canada). Obviously, the comparison with Lando Norris is hard to take after such a weekend, but let’s not forget that the young Aussie is only in his second season in Formula 1.
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