Oscar Piastri says McLaren ‘getting more optimistic’ after Bahrain test but insists team are not ‘leading the pack’

Oscar Piastri has admitted that he and the McLaren team are “getting a little bit more optimistic” following the second pre-season test in Bahrain, though the Australian has cautioned that he does not believe the squad are “leading the pack by any stretch of the imagination”.

Piastri completed his stint in the MCL40 on Friday morning at the second and last run of testing before the campaign begins in Australia on March 6-8, placing third on the timesheets whilst racking up a total of 66 laps for the day.

Speaking to the media afterwards, the 24-year-old was quizzed on whether he felt that the Woking-based outfit had a car in which they could fight at the sharp end from the off.

“I think we’re probably getting a little bit more optimistic,” Piastri responded. “The testing’s gone smoothly for us at least. We’ve been able to get a lot of laps in, learn a lot of things, both good and bad.

“I think we’ve got some good ideas and good directions, especially with such a big change in the rules – you’re going to try a lot of bad things alongside the good things. I think finding out anything you can before Round 1 is always important, so I feel like we’re making good progress.

“I wouldn’t say we’re leading the pack by any stretch of the imagination, but I feel like we’re not too bad.”

In terms of the process of adjusting to the new cars – amid the introduction of sweeping new technical regulations – Piastri also spoke of the progress he has felt in this area at the wheel of the McLaren.

“I think it’s definitely been a learning curve, and there’s still some things that we need to do as drivers that are certainly very different to what we had to do last year,” the nine-time race winner explained.

“But I think the kind of optimisation around driving that way, as drivers I think we’re getting our heads around the new things we need to do, and as teams making accommodations for having to drive a certain way now.

“I think it has improved – it still is very different to what we had before, but I think naturally we’ve all found performance and with performance it’s made some creature comforts a little bit nicer as well. I think we are making progress – let’s see what Melbourne’s like.”