SUMMARY
- Oscar Piastri gives honest opinion on McLaren's strengths and weaknesses.
- McLaren will be looking to steal a win from Red Bull in 2024.
In 2023, Oscar PIastri had one of the best F1 seasons for a rookie. He looks to keep up this momentum going into the 2024 season. However, he still feels that there are areas where McLaren can improve to have a better chance at that race win they have been looking for.
In 2023, we saw McLaren go from the bottom of the table to finishing on the podium in almost every race. The team brought an impressive upgrade in Austria which completely changed the pace of the car. From now on, McLaren will not be looking back as they look to take the Championship from the hands of Red Bull.
Oscar Piastri reveals McLaren’s weakness going into the 2024 season
Although things seem to be going well for Oscar PIastri and McLaren, PIastri feels that there are still areas where the team can improve as the car has its own weaknesses.
“The thing for us is, we still have pretty clear weaknesses [low-speed handling] compared to our competitors. It’s just that we also have good strengths as well.
“How those are going to balance up against each other is always difficult even for us to know. Every team has some sort of fluctuation at every circuit apart from Red Bull [at] Singapore.”
Oscar Piastri on McLaren’s chances in 2024:
“Of course, we don’t know what the other teams have around us.
“We’re happier than we were at this point 12 months ago with how things are looking. But until you’re on track with everyone else, you never quite know what it’s going to… pic.twitter.com/7KT4g7SuTI
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) January 29, 2024
Back in 2023, we saw McLaren struggle in low-speed corners. However, they were able to balance it out with their performance a the rest of the circuit. If McLaren’s 2024 challenger continues to have the same issue, the team will need to work towards eliminating the problem.
Given Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s current form, McLaren will need everything in their arsenal to challenge the powerful duo. In 2023, Red Bull won every single race except for the Singapore Grand Prix which was won by Carlos Sainz.
Zak Brown feeling “really good” about McLaren’s 2024 F1 challenger
With the 2024 season just a month away, Zak Brown seems to be happy with the progress McLaren has been making in the past few months.
“We’re feeling really good about our car for next year. [It’s] hard to kind of know when Red Bull maybe stopped developing this year’s car to get going on next year’s.
“But we definitely feel like we will take a step forward but so will the entire grid and we’re just going to have to wait and see.”
Zak Brown says he is “very confident” with #McLaren’s relationship with Lando Norris 🧡
“I’m very confident in the relationship that we have with Lando. I know he’s very excited for this year and was very impressed with what he saw over the second half of last year.”#F1 pic.twitter.com/n0d0bGqKmP
— McLaren F1 News 🏴🇦🇺 (@TheMcLarenZone) January 26, 2024
Going into the 2024 season, it is hard to predict who will be on top. Although Red Bull seems to have the upper hand, they did not have as much time in the Wind Tunnel and CFD simulator as the other teams. This was due to the penalty the team received for breaching the 2021 regulations. McLaren will be looking to take advantage of this and sneak in a win after a long time.
It will be interesting to see how the team falls in order after the first race of the season. Will Red Bull remain on top, or will McLaren or one of the other teams take the top spot in 2024? Post your answers in the comments section below.
