Oscar Piastri has suggested that McLaren have a “solid place to be starting from” ahead of the first race of the season after mostly “faultless” running from their car in pre-season testing, though the Australian acknowledged that the team still have room for improvement.
The reigning Teams’ champions ended the final day of the test in Bahrain with fourth place on the timesheets for Piastri, who recorded 84 laps at the wheel of the MCL39 during Friday’s afternoon session.
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Reflecting on how the team fared during the three-day test, Piastri commented: “That’s testing done. I think it was a productive three days. We tried a lot of things and learnt a lot.
“Some things felt quite good, others still need improvement but working through this is exactly what testing is for. The car ran pretty much faultlessly, which was a solid place to be starting from. We’ve got a lot to review before Melbourne, but I think we’re going into it in decent shape.»
Piastri recorded 84 laps during the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain
Team mate Lando Norris, meanwhile, drove the car during Friday’s morning session and ended the day in 11th place with a lap count of 57.
«Much trickier conditions on track this morning with the wind and temperature,” said Norris. “Once I was comfortable, we were able to work through our plan and collect more data.
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“We’ll now put it all together and look through everything we’ve completed over the last few days to make sure we’re ready for Melbourne.»
Team Principal Andrea Stella also spoke positively about the work that the Woking-based outfit had been able to do during pre-season testing, with the Italian stating that they will now focus on analysing the data ahead of the Australian Grand Prix on March 14-16.
Norris admitted that conditions were «tricker» during Friday morning’s running in Bahrain compared to previous days
«The end of three productive days here in Bahrain,” Stella commented. “We completed our aero tests this morning, before giving both Lando and Oscar a chance for some runs to allow them to gain insight into the capabilities of the car before we head to Australia.
“We also took the opportunity to make some further set-up changes as we continue to learn about the characteristics of the MCL39.
READ MORE: Norris sets out expectations for ‘tough’ battles with Verstappen in 2025
“The team here and in Woking have done a great job of bringing our new car to the track and allowing us to maximise all of the time available to us this week. We have plenty to analyse and work on before the first race of the season in two weeks’ time.»
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