McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has revealed that the upcoming change of rules won’t affect the team ahead of the remaining races of the season.
Formula One has confirmed plans to introduce stricter front wing load tests starting from the Spanish Grand Prix on June 1, in a move aimed at limiting flexing components.
Red Bull principal Christian Horner suggested that the revision could impact team performance.
Ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Piastri is confident that the new rule won’t affect the McLaren team.
He said, “I’m pretty confident we’ll be strong all year. I don’t think it’ll change too much. I’ve not spoken to the team about it massively, in all honesty, which probably tells you enough about that.”
McLaren has never won in the Bahrain Grand Prix in over two decades, failing to appear in the podium since 2010.
Piastri, who delivered a dominant performance to emerge victorious at the Chinese Grand Prix last week has revealed that the team is ready to end their poor run in Bahrain.
He said, “This has not been a great track for us in the past couple of years. Well, I think even longer than that, to be honest, so I think it will be a good test for us.
“I think there were certainly strong points from the test that we were happy with. There were certainly not-so-strong points that we’ve done a lot of work to try and improve from the test as well.
“I think, you know, on paper the layout is still – this car is not a completely different beast to what we’ve had the last couple of years.
“But I think we’re as confident as we have been in my time at the team. We are in a position to win this weekend, and I think we have some evidence from testing that we’re in a good place.”
Piastri believes the overall equation is the same despite Verstappen’s stunning run to enter the title race.
He said, “I don’t think it changes much. I think we have the quickest car at the moment,” the Aussie said.
“But our advantage is not enough to be careless and kind of lay back and not execute as best as you can.
“As we saw in Japan, Max put in a good performance and it was enough to be better than us. So, I think that’s just another demonstration that it’s going to be tight the whole year and we’ve got to be in our best form.”
Lando Norris is currently leading the drivers’ championship by a point over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after four races, McLaren also tops the constructors’ standings.
Piastri has achieved three race wins, one pole position, three fastest laps and twelve podiums in Formula One.
