Piastri: Mercedes will also be strong in Qatar

Oscar Piastri shared his predictions for next weekend – the McLaren driver hopes he and Lando Norris can claim a winning double in Qatar.

Oscar Piastri: “This year has taught me a lot, and for example it differed from the debut season in that I was able to make significant progress in terms of working with tires, and in general the racing speed is much better.

There are still some things that need to be improved, including qualifying this year I didn’t do so well, and in many races I made it difficult for myself.

Perhaps this is the biggest difference from the debut season, when I still had to fill some gaps in my race preparation. Overall, I learned a lot, and participating in the Constructors’ Championship battle itself provides a very useful experience. I hope that next year we can compete for the most important prizes from the start of the championship.”

The weather conditions in Qatar were not nearly as warm as a year ago, although of course it was not as cold as in Las Vegas. Oscar Piastri was asked how this could affect the performance of the McLaren car, as last weekend neither he nor his teammate Lando Norris even claimed a place in the top three.

“We’re not too worried about how cold it is here right now,” the Australian racer replied. – As for Vegas, if you try to design a race track specifically for our car, it won’t look like this city ring. In general, the weather conditions do not worry me much, and let’s hope that the track configuration in Qatar will suit our car well.

But I think Mercedes will be strong again, especially because such weather conditions should suit them. What we can expect from Ferrari and Red Bull remains to be seen, but I am confident that we will be competitive regardless of the circumstances.

At the very least, I have no doubt that we can maintain our lead in the Constructors’ Championship, and if we can increase our lead that will be even better.”

Piastri was also asked if he has the right to compete with his partner on the track, since the battle for the title has already been completed and Max Verstappen has become world champion?

“Yes, although we are not going to do anything that could affect our team’s chances of winning the Constructors’ Championship,” he assured. – Generally speaking, whoever is faster among us will finish first. We can compete freely among ourselves, and we can only hope that we will compete for the first two places!”