{"id":30906,"date":"2025-04-18T18:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T18:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/30906\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T18:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T18:43:07","slug":"oscar-piastri-reveals-very-different-mclaren-f1-2025-upgrade-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/30906\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri reveals ‘very different’ McLaren F1 2025 upgrade approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri confirmed it is \u201cexpected\u201d that both McLaren drivers will be receiving upgrades at the same time this season, as they battle for a potential Drivers\u2019 Championship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McLaren took the approach last season of bringing upgrades as quickly as possible, meaning that one package would occasionally be available for one car first before the other would receive it the following race, but with both drivers at the top of the standings early on, Piastri<\/a> stated he and Lando Norris are set to \u201chave the same car every weekend\u201d while it is possible to do so.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri: \u2018Expected\u2019 that McLaren duo will have \u2018same car\u2019 with updates<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

With Norris having been favoured in the second half of last year as he looked to pursue Max Verstappen, Piastri and senior McLaren<\/a> personnel have assured that both drivers are operating on a level playing field \u2013 with both looking in contention for a potential title challenge at this stage.<\/p>\n

Norris leads Piastri by three points heading into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend, and with updates set to be brought through the season, the Australian confirmed the team would look to ensure their drivers have equal machinery for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

When presented with the team\u2019s approach to upgrades last season and asked how they will go about upgrading the MCL39 this time around, Piastri told media including PlanetF1.com: \u201cI think this year, the situation is very, very different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think last year, especially at the beginning of the season, we were incredibly keen to get whatever performance we could onto the car as quickly as possible, and we needed to make up a points deficit, in the Constructors\u2019 Championship, especially.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Uncovered: Intricate tech secrets on display at Saudi Arabian GP<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Saudi Arabian GP weather forecast: What will the weather be like in Jeddah?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we\u2019re in a very different position. Obviously, we have already a decent gap in the Constructors\u2019 Championship and both of us fighting for the Drivers\u2019 Championship, so I think it\u2019s expected that we\u2019ll both have an equal opportunity and the same car to be able to fight for the Drivers\u2019 Championship, and obviously in the Constructors\u2019 Championship, we\u2019re in a good place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, while we have the opportunity to keep it equal and have the same car every weekend, we should do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With McLaren\u2019s much-discussed \u2018papaya rules\u2019 having dictated how the drivers go racing against each other, the team has taken a \u2018let them race\u2019 approach as often as possible in 2025 so far.<\/p>\n

When asked if the equal treatment between the drivers would sort itself out on track, the four-time Grand Prix winner made sure to say that one-lap pace is a key differentiator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, qualifying is incredibly important,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of the kind of intra-team dynamics and pit stop preferences and whatever that causes, just the power of clean air is so important. So I think, regardless of that, you always want to be qualifying at the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with two drivers in the same car, I think with very similar pace, whenever you can be ahead, it\u2019s a pretty major advantage, so it is going to be important to to have good qualifying \u2013 but we\u2019ve seen in the past that it\u2019s not always everything. There are other areas where you can make up the difference if you do a good enough job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Lando Norris reveals dramatic mindset shift after challenging Bahrain weekend<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri confirmed it is \u201cexpected\u201d that both McLaren drivers will be receiving upgrades at the same time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,1710,12,1712,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-30906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-mclaren","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-oscar-piastri","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114360444818900135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}