Oscar Piastri issues McLaren hammer blow in Mercedes pursuit

Oscar Piastri believes McLaren cannot currently win F1 races "on merit" but warned Mercedes the team is "not too far off."

After five races, McLaren is third in the constructors', 113 points behind Mercedes and 41 down on Ferrari in second, although the team has suffered three Did Not Starts from the 16 potential opportunities, including Sprints, and suffered a disastrous Canadian GP. 

Both Piastri and Lando Norris, from the second row, started on intermediates in Montreal despite the track drying, with Norris then retiring with a gearbox failure and Piastri earning a 10-second time penalty for ramming into Alex Albon as he finished 11th. 

However, the team deployed a huge upgrade package in both Miami and Canada, something which gives Piastri hope that the team can soon return to winning ways in grands prix, with Piastri's last win coming at the 2025 Dutch GP, and McLaren's Norris's victory in Sao Paulo. 

"We've got some homework to do on how to make the car even quicker," Piastri observed to media, including RacingNews365.

"[Canada] was a positive weekend in a few different areas, maybe not very spectacular in terms of results, but I felt like I made some good progress compared to Miami on a few things.

"So there are always positives there, but you've got to look pretty hard.

"Mercedes were definitely still ahead, we could get close, and it was a similar picture to Miami, which isn't a bad thing.

"If we could get track position, then we could hang on, but we still want to find the time, we still want to get more out of the car and the power unit, if we can. 

"We're definitely not in a position to be winning races on merit, but we're not too far off."