Oscar Piastri hands McLaren damning verdict after Shanghai shocker

Oscar Piastri has admitted McLaren find themselves stuck in "no man's land" after the Chinese Grand Prix, with the reigning champions trailing Mercedes and Ferrari in the early-season pecking order.

Despite both McLaren drivers failing to start in Shanghai due to electrical power unit issues, the Australian's assessment reflects the performance deficit already evident at the season opener in Australia, where the team finished 51 seconds behind the dominant Mercedes duo.

McLaren sit third in the constructors' championship on 18 points, 80 adrift of leaders Mercedes and 49 behind Ferrari, with team principal Andrea Stella previously acknowledging a gap of between half a second and one second per lap to the front-runners.

Asked if McLaren can get closer in the Japanese Grand Prix, Piastri told select media, including RacingNews365: "I think, hopefully, we can get a bit closer.

"But I would be surprised if we can make up all the deficit. I think China's been pretty representative of where we've been, which has been kind of in a bit of no man's land, as third quickest.

"So, yeah, hopefully we can close the gap."

Whilst the overall picture remains challenging for McLaren, Piastri believes the team have made strides in specific areas as they work to unlock greater performance from the MCL40.

Discussing if any positives can be taken from the second round, Piastri replied: "I think it's been encouraging from some angles. I think we've done a better job of optimising the power unit.

"I think we've got more out of that side of things. But I think the gap has reduced a little bit, though it's still big.

"So I think, whilst we understood some areas, we've also understood that we've got a lot of work to do still in others."