Piastri admits his "car was nervous, especially in the high-speed corners"
Oscar Piastri admitted McLaren lacked both grip and outright pace after a difficult Saturday at Silverstone, with the Australian finishing seventh in the Sprint before qualifying eighth for Sunday's British Grand Prix.
McLaren showed encouraging speed at the start of the Sprint, with both Piastri and teammate Lando Norris making strong launches to overtake Max Verstappen off the line.
While Norris found space to settle into third and eventually secured a podium finish, Piastri was boxed in during the opening laps and lost several positions.
Once the field settled, the Australian was unable to recover, ultimately crossing the line in seventh as McLaren struggled to match the pace of the frontrunners.
After the Sprint, the team made setup changes in an attempt to improve the car ahead of qualifying. However, the adjustments failed to deliver the expected gains, with Piastri qualifying eighth after battling an unstable car, particularly through Silverstone's high-speed corners.
Reflecting on the day, Piastri acknowledged McLaren's difficulties: "A tougher day today. In the Sprint, we made a good start, but once the battles settled, we just didn't have the pace.
"This afternoon, we made some good set up changes, but we didn't quite see the benefits of them on track. The car was nervous, especially in the high-speed corners, so we just were lacking grip and pace."»
Despite the disappointing results, Piastri remains confident McLaren has the potential to fight further up the order once it unlocks more consistent performance from the car.
"Even with these challenges, we know that when we get right, we can be right up there in the fight, like yesterday, when we were just a tenth off third place.
"We have clear areas we need to work on to make the car more adaptable, and the team are working very hard to do that," continued the Australian.
"Mercedes is clearly a step ahead right now, but we believe teams like Ferrari are not completely unbeatable, so we will keep chipping away, manage our tyres and see what we can achieve."»
