Piastri reveals striking career-first 'struggle'

Oscar Piastri revealed that he endured a career-first setback during the entire Spanish Grand Prix, in that he faced a "consistent struggle".

The McLaren driver was off the pace of team-mate Lando Norris throughout the weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the Briton having challenged Max Verstappen for victory. 

As for Piastri, he salvaged seventh after a frustrating qualifying, which saw him have a lap time deleted in Q3 and his following lap lost after a short trip through the gravel. 

Starting from ninth, Piastri failed to get on the back of the Ferraris in fifth and sixth, leaving him in a squabble with both Alpines and Sergio Perez. 

For Piastri, he suffered disappointment across both one lap pace and race pace, something he has never experienced in F1. 

"I would say it's the first weekend where it's been such a consistent struggle the whole way through," Piastri told select media including RacingNews365. 

"And I think in some weekends last year, the race was difficult but qualifying was not bad. This weekend, it's just been a struggle the whole way through, even through practice it's just not been happening. 

"Obviously, just need to understand why it's been the case. Tried a fair few different things we've set up but I've just not had much confidence in the car, which is really the first time I've had that in my career, obviously."

'Difficult day'

Piastri's issue in the race was that it took him too long to get past Gasly, who proved difficult to overtake on a weekend where Alpine showed promise. 

The Australian driver had hoped ahead of the race that he would be able to compete with Mercedes and Ferrari, should he navigate his way past Gasly and Esteban Ocon quickly. 

Struggling to overtake Gasly summed up a tough day in the office for the driver in his second F1 season.

"Yes and no, I think there was obviously some optimism that if we get through the Alpines quickly then maybe be in the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari, but ultimately didn't get through Gasly quick enough," Piastri conceded. 

"But then I think after that the pace, was maybe a bit better towards the end of the race compared to Carlos. 

"But yeah, just a bit of a difficult day."