While the 2023 F1 season has completely been about Red Bull’s domination, another team that has managed to make headlines throughout the season is McLaren. With the Papaya outfit making a late resurgence, as per a recent report by SpeedCafe, star rookie Oscar Piastri is optimistic about their chances of beating out Ferrari to claim P3 in the Constructors’ Championship.
McLaren has been the stand-out performer in the last two races with Oscar Piastri managing to claim his first-ever victory in F1 after winning the Sprint race in Qatar. He also managed to stand on the podium in two consecutive races, in Japan followed by Qatar.
Piastri’s strong results were backed up by his teammate Lando Norris who also managed to finish in the podium places in all three races over the last two race weekends. Now, with five races and two sprints to go, Piastri believes that they can close the gap and maybe even overtake Ferrari by the end of the season.
Oscar Piastri and McLaren are dreaming big
Piastri assessed the current situation of his team and admitted that tracks like Suzuka and Lusail might have suited their cars more, which may not be the case in the rest of the races. The Australian driver said, “I think there are going to be some races (coming up) that are going to be more difficult than Qatar. And probably will suit other teams a bit better.”
However, he is confident that McLaren can bridge the 79 point deficit between them and Ferrari. “Seventy-nine points in five races and a couple of sprints is a big challenge. But we’ll give it a go,” said Piastri.
He also mentioned that the primary aim at this very moment is to overtake Aston Martin, who are P3, 11 points ahead of the Woking-based outfit. It is clear that McLaren have started dreaming big once again, and this time they are working hard to make those dreams a reality.
Ferrari have differing views on McLaren’s resurgence
Not everyone is on board, however, with McLaren’s sky high ambitions. Most notably, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur doesn’t share the same views regarding McLaren’s recent resurgence in Qatar and Japan.
As per Vasseur, it was just a matter of the tracks suiting the car better and nothing more. He pointed out that McLaren had made inroads towards the front of the grid back in Barcelona as well, only to fall back to the midfield soon. Therefore, Ferrari are confident about securing P3 for themselves by the time the season comes to a close.
