'Magnitude' of 'big struggle' not making sense – Piastri

Oscar Piastri has conceded that his Spanish Grand Prix difficulties are not making "full sense" to himself and McLaren, nor is the "magnitude" of his struggles. 

The Australian driver was comfortably slower than Lando Norris across qualifying and the race last weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the young star not feeling comfortable. 

Piastri admitted after the race that it was the first time in his F1 career that he had encountered difficulties across one-lap pace and in race trim, leaving him in a challenging position. 

His issues resulted in P7 in the Spanish GP, whilst Norris battled Max Verstappen for victory. 

Currently, Piastri and McLaren have a few ideas what caused his problems, although a lot continues to be misunderstood. 

"Some hints and potential ideas on why it was such a big struggle, but I think the magnitude of it doesn't make 100% full sense at the moment," Piastri conceded to select media including RacingNews365. 

"So, just need to try and understand why it's been such a big struggle, from the first lap of Friday, it's been difficult. 

"It's not really gotten much better through the weekend, but I think the second half of the race was maybe a bit more positive."

One lap confusion

Piastri's deficit to Norris was alarming, and marked the first real time in his F1 career that he has looked so much slower than his team-mate. 

The driver accepts it is the first time over one-lap in particular where he has faced real issues, although he does not think it is the biggest struggle of his F1 career compared to his team-mate.

"No, I don't think so," said Piastri. "I think some other weekends, especially in some of the other races last year, the Sundays were tough.

"I think here, the race, especially the second half wasn't too bad. I think it was just a general lack of pace.

"So think from a tyre management point of view was probably not a bad result. But yeah, when you don't have the pace to begin with, makes it very difficult.

"I think just being a big struggle, especially over one lap, which I would say, has not really been the case before."