Oscar Piastri admitted being “frustrated” while fighting Lewis Hamilton, and the battle also highlighted a few of McLaren’s weaknesses.
The Aussie driver delivered an incredible performance in Jeddah, finishing P4 just off the podium. However, he wasn’t happy during the race as he didn’t have enough speed to overtake Hamilton.
“Frustrating, yes,” he said while referring to the battle against Hamilton. “I think it kind of just showed a couple of weaknesses of ours, definitely.
“I was very relieved when he boxed out of the way. I just didn’t quite have enough on the straights to get past.”
Then, Piastri also pointed out how McLaren and Mercedes are extremely close in terms of pace, adding that it will be crucial to develop the car to get closer to Red Bull and Ferrari.
“I think it’s very, very even,” he said. “We have different strengths and weaknesses, for sure.
“Qualifying made the difference. Lewis showed that if we qualified behind them, there was a good chance we were going to be stuck behind them for the whole night.
“So I think it’s very, very tight between us. We need to do some work to try and jump them and catch the two teams ahead.”