McLaren reveals hidden Oscar Piastri data that will alert Lando Norris

Miami GP winner Lando Norris benefited from the full McLaren MCL38 upgrade package, but it turned out teammate Oscar Piastri neutralized that advantage and more over one lap.

While Norris grabbed headlines in Miami by becoming a Formula 1 race winner for the first time, it was his teammate Piastri who shone in the first stint and kept the pressure on race leader Max Verstappen, who had been chasing a fifth win of the season.

The gap between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in qualifying is smaller than the package difference

Piastri got within a tenth of Norris in qualifying and took his chance to move up to P2 in a fast Miami GP race start. The timing of the safety car later in the race proved ideal for Norris, but not so much for Piastri, turning around the fortunes of the McLaren drivers.

However, Piastri’s performance over the race weekend was greatly appreciated by McLaren team boss Andrea Stella, who revealed that Piastri’s gap to Norris in qualifying was smaller than the upgrades should have resulted in, giving Norris pause for thought once Piastri also gets the fully upgraded MCL38 the upcoming Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

“Oscar is from (Miami) and is even more aware of his strengths as a driver,” Stella said.

“We somehow already knew how fast he is on a single lap.

“Keep in mind he didn’t have the full package – and let me give Oscar due credit, the gap he had to Lando in qualifying is smaller than the difference in the package he had.

“So he put in a really strong performance on a single lap in very difficult conditions, like all the drivers on soft tires.

“His performance in the race was again very strong.

“Lando said something really nice earlier; He said that as he watched Oscar overtake a Ferrari, he thought, “Wow, we’re actually there.”

“So it was a realization for Lando himself. And Oscar was able to maintain a strong pace in the first stint.

“So I think he comes from (Miami) with that belief in what we wanted to improve, especially in terms of race speed, after looking at Japan and China.

“For me, he’s in a very strong position.”

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Speaking to the media at the Miami GP, Stella explained exactly how the MCL38 packages used by Piastri and Norris differed and, in good news for McLaren, confirmed that the upgrades worked as expected and got them to the Miami International Autodrome ahead of schedule.

“First, I would like to clarify that both cars have been improved compared to the specifications we had in China,” Stella said.

“For Oscar, we upgraded the front of the car with the front fender, front brake line and front suspension, rear brake line and a small portion of the rear suspension.

“For Lando we also had the side pods and the floor.

“So both cars have actually improved compared to China in terms of lap time.

“The data shows us that all upgrades are behaving as expected. So we can see that Lando’s car performs slightly better than Oscar’s car. And we can see that all the sensors, especially the pressure sensors that we have on the front wing and even on the suspension, behave as expected.

“I think this is once again a testament to the good work of not only the aerodynamics department, but also the design and everyone involved in creating these upgrades and delivering them to the track ahead of schedule, because we thought this was for Imola was actually possible.”, but we managed to win a few weeks.”

All eyes are now on the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola to find out whether Red Bull faces a real challenger in McLaren, which has dominated the ground effect era of Formula 1.

Continue reading: Ricciardo or Lawson at Imola? Helmut Marko shares gossip in the paddock about the driver swap