Oscar Piastri makes McLaren “overly optimistic” admission

Oscar Piastri has admitted McLaren was probably “overly optimistic” about its chances before Mercedes dominated qualifying at Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Home hero Piastri qualified fifth ahead of McLaren team-mate and reigning world champion Lando Norris but was more than eight tenths down on George Russell, who set an ominous pace on his way to claiming pole position in Melbourne.

Piastri ended Friday practice quickest and conceded he was shocked at the sheer dominance Mercedes enjoyed when it came to qualifying.

“Yes,” was Piastri’s response when asked if he was surprised by the gap to Mercedes in qualifying.

“I think yesterday probably painted an overly optimistic picture for us but we felt like we were in the mix and after FP3 we definitely didn't feel like we were in the mix.

“After FP3, by far the biggest thing was straight line speed. I don't know if it's the same after qualifying, but I think that's clearly something we need to understand.”

Piastri added: “I think our thoughts on the picture have been that everyone was pretty close and then Mercedes jumped ahead and the rest was pretty close.

“I think for me, the biggest thing was we didn't seem to gain very much, or I certainly didn't seem to gain very much through qualifying. I don't know if that was car, driver.

“Certainly the way you have to try and go faster is complex. Clearly the way you naturally want to go fast doesn't work, but maybe there needs to be more restraint or look into that.”

While not as critical as the likes of Norris or Max Verstappen, Piastri was not exactly complimentary of the new regulations either. 

Asked if he enjoyed driving the new generation of F1 cars, Piastri somewhat sidestepped the question, replying: “It’s different.”

“I think everyone can see the state of things. It’s the same as we imagined,” he added.

“We'll have different challenges at other tracks because the tracks are kind of in two categories at the moment of being energy-starved and energy-rich. And there's a problem with either of those things. But I think when you're energy-starved like this, it's a lot more obvious to everyone watching.

“I don't know what the Mercedes lap looks like, but we were lifting and coasting three times a lap. We had two superclips through the lap. And in some corners we've got effectively 450 horsepower less.”