McLaren driver Oscar Piastri is excited to see “how many sandbags will fall from the Red Bull in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix” after he was ahead of Max Verstappen in training.
Piastri finished the second practice session in fifth, four tenths of a second behind the leading Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and just ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen, who appeared to be driving with his engine throttled back as Red Bull focused on race performance.
“Red Bull doesn’t look as fast as we thought. Let’s see how many sandbags fall tomorrow,” smiles Piastri in an interview with Formula1.com. “It’s a lot closer than I expected. Mercedes looked fast, Fernando [Alonso] looked quick. It’s always a bit difficult to judge on a Thursday, but I think we’re within the points range.”
McLaren “on the right track”
He says that with the density of the field it is possible to fight for the podium – or even just finish tenth. “Hopefully we can stay near the top.”
Piastri also stresses that the team still needs to investigate some discrepancies with the MCL38’s pace, with the windy conditions at Sachir playing a role.
“I think we’re on the right track,” he says. “We’re still a bit unstable so it’s hard to say how we’ll do, but it looks similar for everyone.”
“There are a few runs that we need to look at in more detail to find out why they were that way, both the good and the bad, but I think the general mood on the day is pretty positive,” Piastri said.
“It always feels a bit pathetic to blame the wind, but it’s difficult out there when it’s so windy. The cars have such different balance and downforce depending on what the wind is doing . It’s been difficult out there and tomorrow will be no different.”
Norris experiences a “chaotic day”
Lando Norris, however, only ended up in last place in the second McLaren, but had aborted his qualifying lap on soft tires. But although he admits it was a “chaotic day”, he agrees with Piastri that the overall picture for the Woking team is encouraging.
“It was a decent day, probably a little better than I expected,” he says. “It wasn’t my best day, it was just a bit chaotic on my part. I hope I’ve got that under control and can do a better job tomorrow.”
“It was a good day for us. We tried a few things, we understood the car a little better, but there are still a lot of things we need to improve,” said Norris. “It’s clear that Red Bull is still at the top and Ferrari is close. Mercedes is always a question mark, but it was clear that they wouldn’t be bad.”