2023-07-09 00:02:00
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri said qualifying third for the British Grand Prix was a ‘big confidence booster’. Rookie Piastri will start from the second row, the best result of his F1 career, one position behind McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
The McLarens dominated the three sessions, with Norris on provisional pole at the climax of qualifying. The result comes as McLaren introduced a significant upgrade to the MCL60 that was first fitted to Norris’ car at the previous race in Austria. Piastri loaded these parts this weekend and wasted no time in putting them to good use. “It’s given me a lot of confidence,” Piastri told Speedcafe when asked what the qualifying results meant to him personally. “The final result aside, I think I did a good lap.” “I’ve made a few mistakes in Q3 this past year, so I’m happy that I was able to record a solid lap, and that led to 3rd place.” “I feel more confident and more experienced every time I go out on the track.” “I’m really happy to be fighting for higher positions now.” I thought we would at least be in the top ten over the weekend, but it’s been really solid for us from before when the conditions were like that.” “I was very confident going into the race and we managed to do it.” got off to a good start in his career, gaining fans within the team with his thoughtful approach weekend after weekend. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown called him a future world champion, while team principal Andrea Stella called the 22-year-old a “remarkable” and well-learned driver. His only blemish was a crash during qualifying in Canada, a small mistake that was heavily punished by the small venue in Montreal. Still, the Australian driver, who has been an unwavering presence since stepping into the F1 paddock, didn’t mind that, but rather saw the crash as a learning opportunity. The conditions at the start of qualifying at Silverstone were very similar to those in Canada, but Piastri didn’t make the same mistake and was just over 0.1s slower than Norris. Despite being satisfied with the result, Piastri was already looking ahead to his next goal. “We only have two spots left today, but we’re going to keep pushing,” Piastri said. “We still have some things to work on. I think the lap pace has been pretty consistent this year when we haven’t made any mistakes.” “That’s the big focus, but at the moment I’m very happy to be third.”
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