‘We just weren’t quick enough’ – Piastri admits McLaren ‘need to improve’ after Malaysia P6

Oscar Piastri believes that McLaren “need to improve” after his P6 result at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, with the Australian stating that the team “just weren’t quick enough” to keep up with some of their rivals.

In an eventful afternoon at the Sepang International Circuit, Piastri and team mate Lando Norris were amongst a small group to bolt on the medium tyres for the start of the race – which had been delayed due to heavy rainfall.

The choice proved to be the wrong one, with the track still not dry enough for slicks when the event got underway. Piastri subsequently pitted at the end of the first lap to switch to the intermediates, dropping him backwards through the field.

After working his way forwards again – and making a second pit stop under the first Safety Car for the hard tyres – Piastri narrowly escaped being collected by Norris as the Briton ran off track during the last Safety Car phase later on.

Ultimately the driver from Melbourne came home in sixth place – the same position in which he had started – and spoke positively about his own performance in the race, whilst also acknowledging that there were some areas for improvement.

“Overall, reasonably happy,” said Piastri afterwards. “I think it went pretty well on a personal note. I felt like I did a pretty good job today, which was good. Unfortunately we just weren't quick enough to really do that much.

“The last Safety Car was a bit of a shame, because I was catching Charles [Leclerc] pretty quick. But no, apart from that, just a tricky afternoon. We didn't quite make the right calls, and ultimately we weren't quick enough, so that was the biggest thing.”

When asked whether it feels like McLaren are now behind the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in terms of pace, Piastri responded: “Yeah, I mean, I think Red Bull clearly here have been incredibly fast, for sure. I think it's been the strongest they've been.

“I think clearly whatever they put on the car in Baku's been a big step forward for them, because last weekend without the bad Qualifying they had, they probably would have… well, I mean Max [Verstappen] nearly won the race anyway, and this weekend Max did win the race, so they've been very, very strong the last couple of weekends.

“I think us and Ferrari seem a little bit in a similar ballpark, but that ballpark is not fighting for race wins, so we need to improve. We know that, and we'll try our best to make sure we try and improve.”