Piastri surprised by McLaren's heavily-improved performance in slow corners

McLaren's Oscar Piastri has praised the competitiveness of his car, the MCL38 that has been quick on different circuits in recent races. The Australian hopes that his team can maintain its competitiveness on all types of circuits in the rest of the season.

Although McLaren started the season behind the field-leading Red Bull and Ferrari, they have significantly improved their performance by introducing a host of upgrades in Miami.

The heavily-upgraded MCL38 has suddenly become more competitive, enabling Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to challenge Max Verstappen for victory in Miami and in Imola.

Last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix was no outlier in that sense as McLaren managed to maintain their competitiveness on the narrow streets of the Principality which have been a weakness for the Woking-based outfit's cars in recent years.

Piastri was left surprised by the fact that his MCL38 has been competitive on three circuits that feature contrasting characteristics: "I think it's been three very different circuits in the past three races, and we've been competitive at all of them.

"Miami was probably one of our worst circuits before this year. Imola has always been kind to us, but we had a very strong weekend there, and here's been.

"Let's say our car's never been the strongest in the slow corners, and this weekend we've been very quick again.

"So I think we can be confident wherever we go. I feel like we don't have to rely on the high-speed circuits like we did last year to get our results, which is a very exciting thing to have going forward.

"And, yeah, I think the pecking order is as tight as it's ever been, especially this weekend. Going into qualifying, I think we thought that there could be any one of four teams on pole, which I don't think we've been able to say for a while. So, I think we can definitely be in the fight every weekend.

Piastri suffered a light contact from Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz when the pair battled for positions at the first corner.The Spaniard was adamant to make up a position after a brilliant launch off the line, which saw the pair exit the Sainte Devote corner side-by-side.

As neither of them intended to back off, the pair touched, causing a puncture for Carlos Sainz while Piastri picked up damage to the floor of his MCL38.

"I definitely felt the touch at Turn 1 and at that part of the car, it's such a sensitive part.

"The team told me how much downforce I was losing before we tried to fix it and it was a pretty big number," Piastri said of the incident.

"I don't know what we managed to get it down to but yeah, obviously the length of the red flag helped us out quite a lot there. And being in Monaco, it's probably the one track where having damage doesn't hurt you as much.

"So, yeah, it was a very, very small touch. But with these cars, especially with the floor being so sensitive to the downforce it generates, it can ruin your race very easily. So, yeah, I was very happy we could try and fix it," added Piastri.