Inside Oscar Piastri and McLaren’s Spanish Grand Prix horror show: How optimism turned to disaster as the season from hell drags on for Aussie and teammate Lando Norris
- Piastri finished 13th in Barcelona, Norris 17th
- Norris had qualified third as an encouraging sign
- The optimism evaporated shortly after the start of the race
McLaren’s downward spiral continued at the Spanish Grand Prix with a race-ruined early accident for Lando Norris and another afternoon scrambling in the bottom half of the field for Oscar Piastri.
Australian rookie Piastri called it a ‘tougher afternoon than we thought’ as any encouraging signs from qualifying 24 hours earlier quickly evaporated for the British team at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday.
Norris was stunned to finish third in qualifying and Piastri felt he would have been higher than tenth had he made just one mistake on his most important Q3 run.
But any promise of what Norris called a ‘special’ Saturday vanished as neither driver could find the same race pace and the Englishman’s afternoon was quickly ruined by an accidental first lap collision with Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes.
Piastri (pictured just before the start of the race in Barcelona) and Norris had reason to be optimistic until the lights turned green – then things quickly went downhill
The Aussie is 13th in the drivers’ standings with just five points from seven starts this year – and there’s little chance he’ll change that for the better any time soon
Norris went into the rear of Hamilton within two turns and had to pit for a new front wing. He rejoined the back of the field, from where he managed to creep his way up to finish 17th.
Hamilton, meanwhile, finished second to Red Bull’s runaway championship leader Max Verstappen.
“I messed things up on the first lap,” said Norris, making it clear it wasn’t Hamilton’s fault before painting a bleak picture of McLaren’s prospects.
“The pace was as expected… which was bad. I don’t think we expected anything different. We were slow and we have been all year.”
Piastri, who has impressed as a paragon of positivity through McLaren’s woes at the start of his debut season, tried to sound more optimistic, but it wasn’t easy.
After shocking the field by placing his McLaren third on the grid in qualifying, nothing went right for Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris (pictured)
The McLaren car (pictured driven by Piastri in Spain) has not seen the benefits of effective upgrades in recent races – unlike many of its competitors
“It was unfortunately a difficult afternoon, more difficult than we thought,” said the 22-year-old.
“We knew it was going to be a bit tricky to get into the points, so we’ll regroup, try to figure out why it was so hard today and make sure we’re faster next time.
“We have some things in the works, not necessarily for Canada [the next race in Montreal] but still positive for the few races after that.
“But it was a tough day [among] a lot of. I believe they say “We may have lost the battle, but we will try to win the war”. We will do our best.’
Piastri’s results in the six races since his unfortunate retirement on debut were 15th, eighth, 11th, 19th, 10th and 13th, placing him 13th out of 20 overall in the Drivers’ Championship, with just five points.
The much more experienced Norris doesn’t fare much better and sits 11th out of 12 points.
“A lot of teams have brought upgrades in recent races and we haven’t,” said Norris.
“We don’t expect anything more than we do and if we get the points it’s a great day – but the expectation is that we won’t.”