Oscar Piastri is optimistic about there being "a lot up for grabs" for himself and McLaren as the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend develops, despite a difficult opening day at the Hungaroring where he ran an older specification car.
Piastri sat out FP1 for McLaren reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli, jumping straight into the cockpit in FP2 where he wound up eighth fastest. Team mate Lando Norris, running the team's full upgrade package, posted the third-quickest time of the day behind Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
"Very, very challenging, for sure. I think the track conditions are pretty challenging out there — it's very windy," Piastri said. "It's just a very challenging circuit at the moment, and obviously missing a practice session has made it pretty tough."
Randy Singh, McLaren's Senior Director of Racing, confirmed the upgrades are delivering as expected: "Today, Oscar ran the old floor in P2, just so we could compare across cars, so tomorrow Oscar will have the new floor as well."
"All the upgrades have delivered as we expected, which is the most positive thing that we can say," Singh added. "The gap to whoever's been quickest in Qualifying or in the race has been a bit bigger in recent races, so we always knew that we weren't going to close that gap in one go, but hopefully we've made a good step to doing so."
Piastri remained optimistic about the weekend ahead: "I think if we execute a good day, it seems like there can be a lot up for grabs."
Sources
- https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/piastri-sees-a-lot-up-for-grabs-for-mclaren-in-hungary-despite-very-challenging-first-day.2rzvag0QfcIm2UlaIkQB0m
