Piastri details McLaren boost for Miami GP weekend

Oscar Piastri has stated McLaren's upgrades for the Miami Grand Prix weekend will be a “good step forward” for the squad.

McLaren has enjoyed a strong start to the 2024 Formula 1 campaign with Piastri's team-mate Lando Norris scoring two podiums in the opening five races.

The Woking-based squad currently sits third in the constructors' championship and aims to utilise Miami upgrades to further boost its position in the pecking order.

While Piastri acknowledged the sprint weekend will make it tougher to maximise their potential, the Australian is hopeful they will offer a strong advantage for McLaren.

“It should be a good step forward, hopefully,” he told media including RacingNews365. “That's always what you want from updates on the car.

“Obviously on a Sprint weekend, it makes it a little bit more difficult to get the most out of them, because you've only got one practice session, but yeah it should hopefully be a decent step forward.”

However, Piastri suggested he was slightly coy over its chances following McLaren's difficult weekend in Miami last season.

“I think last year we had some upgrades in Baku, which was the race before Miami, and then we had a shocker here last year,” he said.

“So we'll have to wait and see if this track kind of suits us, because last year we chopped and changed quite a bit. But yeah, hopefully it does what it's supposed to do and that would be good.”

With the current set of technical regulations in its third season, Piastri highlighted it is becoming ever more difficult to make significant gains.

“Obviously as you get closer and closer to the limit of these cars and these regs, it becomes harder and harder to do,” he added. “So we'll see.

“I think the upgrades we pulled off last year always worked well. So yeah, hopefully we can have a similar kind of effect this year.”