World Championship battle against Red Bull Racing: McLaren star Oscar Piastri sounds the alarm

The battle for the Constructors’ Championship at the top of the standings isn’t as exciting as the fight for third place, which is currently held by the Red Bull Racing team. Ahead of the 19th race weekend of the season, the Milton Keynes-based team has the same number of points as its closest rival, McLaren; nevertheless, Max Verstappen’s team has the edge because they have secured two more second-place finishes than the world champions.

There is no sign that the papaya-coloured team will overtake Red Bull Racing, says someone who should know: McLaren star Oscar Piastri reacts with his usual composure in the paddock in Mexico City when asked about the points tie: “You just have to keep fighting. I think, at the moment, we know we’re not as consistently competitive as Red Bull Racing.”

In the same breath, the Australian adds defiantly: “But we’re still working on continuing to improve the car’s performance. And a lot can still happen. Reliability has been a major issue this year, so the situation could still change in many ways.”

McLaren with updates in the pipeline

“But when it comes to pure performance, we clearly still need to take a few steps forward,” acknowledges the 25-year-old. “And we’ve still got a few updates for the car in the pipeline, which will hopefully help. But I think it’ll be a big challenge for us to finish ahead of Red Bull Racing.”

After having to settle for seventh place at the recent race in Austin, whilst his team-mate Lando Norris finished fifth, Piastri insists the team has found some answers to the questions raised by their recent difficulties. “That said, we don’t have all the answers yet, but we at least have an idea of why things didn’t go as hoped.”

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And the nine-time Grand Prix winner is confident that there are some factors he can already work on in Mexico City. “Some of them were similar to the difficulties we faced at the start of the season. But there are still a few races left on the calendar that we can use to continue working on our performance,” he says encouragingly.