No McLaren at the top of day one in Monaco: As in his second place in the previous year, World Cup leaders Oscar Piatri has to take place again behind local hero Charles Leclerc.
In the first training session, the McLaren star even comes in fifth, while teammate Lando Norris occupies the third position. In the afternoon, Norris then goes back to fourth position – but while the Brit is three tenths of Leclerc, Piatri works in second and 38 thousands to the Scuderia star.
In the meantime, it looks like a used day for the World Cup leader, because in the afternoon he has to survive a shock at a slip in curve one, and trifles the front section of his car when it is stacked into the tire stack.
“It was indeed difficult, the whole day was growing a bit,” reports Piatri later. But for his behavior in the case of mistakes in Sainte-Dévote, the Australian also gets praise: “It was very clever from him to open the steering and drive to the tire gang,” says ex-formula 1 pilot Christian Klien at “ServusTV”: “He did not break any bike suspension and was even able to continue the training.”
And then achieve the second best time. Piatri also believes: “If everything fits together, the pace is really good – only at the moment it is not so easy to get everything in a nutshell. There is a lot to analyze now,” says the World Cup leader that he and his engineers still have a lot of work in front of him and “a lot to learn”.
Norris: “Difficult to get really clean rounds”
But he also takes on himself behind the steering wheel: “Today the confusion was more on my side, it was just quite chaotic from me. I will try to put a restart tomorrow, because the potential in the car is definitely there,” says Piatri, although he is aware of the competition: “Ferrari is clearly stronger here than last.”
Team colleagues Norris also locate potential for improvement after day one in the principality: “Monaco is always fun, but it is always stressful. Today it was difficult to get really clean rounds. But the feeling in the car was good from the start. But in some areas we have to improve,” believes the Brit.
It is “difficult to put into words” why the McLaren is not so easy to control, “says Norris:” There are many small things – nothing serious, but if you talk about hundredths about hundredths, add up these little things. It is simply difficult to get everything right at the same time: braking, cornering, tire temperature, grip, vehicle feeling – everything has to be perfectly coordinated: ” Working together of many factors. “