Oscar Piastri confirms McLaren 'working hard' on fix to avoid Friday F1 test no-show

Oscar Piastri has confirmed that McLaren is "working hard" to fix a fuel system issue that triggered an early end to running on Thursday, in order to avoid missing the final day.

Piastri was unable to run in the afternoon on Thursday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya due to the problem, restricting him to just 48 laps in the morning session.

It represented a setback for the Australian driver’s preparation ahead of the new F1 season, with both he and the team lacking significant mileage.

The Woking-based outfit has only the final day of the test remaining in Barcelona, putting pressure on McLaren to complete an overnight fix to the issue.

According to Piastri, despite the limited running, McLaren has already identified areas it can improve, something it hopes to build on during the final day.

"It was nice to be back out today, especially in the new car," said Piastri. "There’s a lot of challenges this year up and down the grid, so it was good to get stuck in. 

"We had a fuel system issue, which cut our day short, but the team’s working hard to get that fixed and back out tomorrow.

"These cars are completely different to what we’ve had the last few years. That’s part of what this test is about. We’ve already identified a few things that we can try to improve on the car to make it feel a bit nicer. 

"We have one more day of running tomorrow. We’ll continue to get used to the car and get a good read on how different things feel. Then we’ll find a good direction to make the car quicker and feel nicer."