Piastri makes admission after McLaren slip behind Ferrari and Mercedes

Oscar Piastri admits that he would have "done a few things differently" during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after McLaren lost out to Mercedes and Ferrari.

The pair had good starts and managed to get themselves into podium contention, after teammate Lando Norris overtook George Russell at the start.

Norris and Piastri battled for third, with the former coming out on top after a move using the DRS into Turn 6. The pair ultimately dropped back when McLaren made a mistake with Norris in the pits and pitted Piastri several laps earlier.

"We were free to race and I think at that point, he [Norris] had a bit more pace and could attack Charles and try and help us out," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365.

"But in the end, he didn't have enough to get Charles and I didn't have enough to keep George behind it.

"We struggled a bit with both of us, maybe I would have done a few things differently if I had that race again."

Piastri: Not the strongest race we've had

Piastri admits that McLaren did not have one of their strongest races in Abu Dhabi, after they appeared to fall behind Ferrari and Mercedes in the development race.

The two teams introduced major updates at the end of the season, while McLaren's last big update was at Suzuka in September.

"It was nice to just have a clean race. It's been a while since I've had a race without contact or something crazy going on," said Piastri.

"Maybe not as strong as we would have liked as a team. My first and second stint weren't my best stints of the year, but I think the final stint looks quite strong.

"So nice to end it on a decent note, but we know that our car still weak in a few areas and I think this track exposed that in different places."