Oscar Piastri has denied that the recent low-speed gains McLaren has crafted with its 2024 Formula 1 car have hampered its previous prowess in high-speed corners.
McLaren had boasted a weakness in slow speed going back numerous seasons and even last term when it managed to upgrade a car into regular podium contention.
Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris capitalised on McLaren’s MCL60 being a match to Red Bull’s RB20 in high-speed turns to log double podiums in Japan and Qatar.
However, McLaren has since bolstered its performance at low speed with updates in Miami that over-delivered based on initial expectations and helped Norris to win.
But while Mercedes struggled earlier this campaign with optimising a car across cornering ranges, Piastri harbours no such concerns with McLaren’s MCL38 charger.
The Australian is convinced that the Woking-based squad will continue to remain competitive as F1 returns to a more conventional circuit at Barcelona this weekend.
“I think we can still be confident,” Piastri said. “I think I wouldn’t say we’re weak in high speed, it’s just that others have probably caught up a little bit.
“I think I’m pretty confident we’ll be somewhere towards the front as well. I think Red Bull will probably be a bit stronger than they have been, but I think we’ll be in the fight.”
McLaren being a consistent fixture at the sharp end with both drivers has seen it accumulate more points (116) than all its competitors across the last three rounds.
Piastri believes that the British outfit must be regarded as a genuine championship challenger at this stage, despite acknowledging the vast 89-point gap to Red Bull.
“It’ll be tough, definitely, but I think we’re in the fight,” he added.
“I think we scored the most points in Canada as a team, not by much, but it’s definitely a really good result for us.
“I think we’ve both been very consistent in the last few weekends. And, I think across some very different circuits, we’ve been strong at all of them.
“There are still some things to tidy up and we’re talking about little things, but when you’re fighting for championships, little things go a long way.
“So it’s going to be very tough, and obviously Red Bull’s got a bit of a head start.
“I don’t know how far behind Ferrari we are now, but obviously, we took a good bunch of points out of them, so I definitely think we’re in the mix.
“But it’ll be a big second half of the year to make it happen.”
