McLaren expecting to “struggle” with low-speed flaws in China

McLaren are expecting this weekend’s Sprint outing at the Shanghai International Circuit to be a difficult one, with Oscar Piastri saying the team might “slip a little bit further back” as they expect to lose their competitive edge during the Australian’s first-ever Chinese Grand Prix. 

Oscar Piastri is one of many drivers who will be taking on the new challenge of the Shanghai International Circuit this weekend, calling upon his grandfather’s Chinese heritage as he claimed it his “1/16 home race”.

Although the 23-year-old is excited to take on the unknown, McLaren’s package this weekend doesn’t quite align with his ambitions.

The track doesn’t suit the MCL38’s high-speed preferences, revealing a flaw in their 2024 challenger which is only amplified by the sole 60-minute practice session of the weekend on the newly resurfaced SIC. 

“We’ve not been great in slow corners for a while… and there’s a lot of slow corners here,” Piastri said.

“Our strengths are kind of the high-speed stuff. 

“There’s not really any high-speed corners here, well, there’s [Turns] 7 and 8, but that’s about it.

“When we say ‘we’ll struggle’, I think it’s been very close between sort of us, Mercedes, Aston, we’ve gotten close-ish to Ferrari a couple of times, but we might just slip a little bit further back in that this weekend.

“I think anything less than [a top ten place]… somethings gone a bit wrong, maybe it’s not quite as competitive as what we’ve been in the last two weekends.”

Despite coming into the weekend hyper-aware of the struggle that lies ahead, Piastri is still remaining positive and embracing the test that begins tomorrow.

The #81 rode his “bright yellow” rental bike around the SIC today, scoping out and analysing the surface for the very first time… self-admittedly looking “amazing” whilst doing so!

“I rode [the circuit] this morning… it looked cool,” the Australian said.

“A lot of unique corners, you know, Turn 1 and 2, on to the back straight as well, both corners that you don’t really have anywhere else in the world so, yeah, interesting to see what it’s like.

“We’ve only got an hour to get used to it before Sprint qualifying so, it’ll be exciting to see.”

Piastri comes to China fresh off a P8 finish in Japan, expecting to finish in a similar position come the chequred flag on both Saturday and Sunday under the Sprint format.

With no driver having driven the track with the current new generation Formula 1 car, the Australian believes the level playing field will be both an advantage and disadvantage.

Both rookies in 2023, Piastri and Logan Sargeant have not even driven F1 cars around this circuit before, with Yuki Tsunoda and Zhou Guanyu also yet to competitively commandeer an F1 car in Shanghai. 

“The guys that have been here a lot of times, they’re going to have the experience regardless of what cars they’re in,” the 23-year-old said.

“I think the fact that no one’s been here for five years is certainly better than if we’d raced here two years ago and I hadn’t.

“It is a bit of a benefit having that, but at the same time, I’ve only got an hour to get used to it.

“At least I’m not the only one in that boat this weekend!” 

Action in Shanghai kicks off at 1:30 PM, AEST on Friday, with a sole practice session opening F1’s return to China for the first Sprint weekend of the season.

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