Oscar Piastri prepared for 'different beast' battle in McLaren waiting game

Oscar Piastri is prepared for a "different beast" battle at Monza as McLaren will discover whether its strong F1 form will translate at the Italian Grand Prix.

Piastri's team-mate Lando Norris has taken pole and won both races on the immediate side of the summer break in Hungary and the Netherlands, with these circuits dominated by short straights and a lot of long corners.

In contrast, Monza is the fastest circuit in F1, with the records for fastest pole lap and fastest elapsed race time being broken in 2025, albeit in the final year of the ground effect regulations. 

However, McLaren has been open that its MCL40 chassis is draggy, a trait which is not suited to Monza, with the nascent talk of the team's title comeback charge set for its first examination this coming weekend. 

"I mean, it's difficult to know because these two circuits are quite similar in characteristics: very short straights, a lot of corners, and generally quite long corners," Piastri said to media, including RacingNews365, about the Hungaroring and Zandvoort when looking ahead to how McLaren would fare at Monza. 

"Monza is going to be a completely different beast for a number of reasons, but we'll have to wait and see if this pace translates to other circuits."

Offering further details about his ongoing struggles with the car, Piastri explained how he is just lacking pace.

"I think in the races, the rear of the car is very tricky to drive, and even in qualifying, the last few weekends it's been difficult, but [the Dutch GP] weekend in qualifying was much nicer, and I felt much more confident," he said.

"And I think at certain points of the race, I felt a lot better with that, but it is just that the pace hasn't been there.

"It's not the first race this year that that's been the case. Some have been good, some have been very strong, but there have been too many now that have been really a long way
off."