Oscar Piastri thinks that McLaren will achieve more podium results in the second half of this season. According to the Australian, the papaya-colored car is second behind the dominant RB19 from Red Bull Racing. He said this during the Belgian Grand Prix, looking back at the races at Silverstone and the Hungaroring.

Lando Norris and Piastry scored only 29 points for the Woking team in the first nine races. However, thanks to the upgrade to the MCL60 that McLaren brought to the Grand Prix in England and Hungary, it has made significant strides. Norris and Piastry qualified second and third respectively at Silverstone, with Norris holding on for second, while Piastry finished fourth. The former came second again at the Hungaroring and Piastri took P5. At Spa-Francorchamps he unfortunately retired on Sunday after contact in the opening lap, but Piastri battled Max Verstappen for victory in the Sprint on Saturday. That candidate managed to make it difficult for the two-time world champion.

Red Bull is simply a better car

“I think so,” Piastri replied when asked if McLaren could now regularly battle for podium positions. “Silverstone and [de Hungaroring] is a very different circuit with completely different conditions. [Hoge] track temperature was a nightmare for us at the start of the season. And still Lando made it to the podium and I managed to stay in the top five. It’s true that the only car that is better than us is Red Bull. Lewis [Hamilton] obviously very fast as well but if you look at where we were a few weekends ago it’s really cool that we can realistically aim for this every weekend.”

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tire wear

Piastry noticed in Hungary that he still has a lot to learn about tire management. “Unfortunately, you can’t learn it in practice or testing.” Only during the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, McLaren planned two stops due to tire wear. “Obviously you want to be able to improve as quickly as possible because we have trophies waiting for us if we do it right. So yes it’s a big thing to try to learn but I’m sure by gaining experience and doing the best homework that will help with that .”