Piastri: McLaren car ‘very strong’ but still ‘unpredictable’ on the limit

Ahead of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, championship leader Oscar Piastri insists McLaren still has a “very strong car” that it can rely on but admits the team’s MCL39 remains “a little bit unpredictable when you get to the limit".

The Australian heads to the tight streets of Monte Carlo holding a 13-point advantage over his McLaren teammate Lando Norris, having taken four wins from the opening seven rounds of the 2025 season.

Despite that form, Piastri had to settle for third in Imola behind Max Verstappen and Norris, raising questions about McLaren's consistency in race conditions – even after Piastri secured his third pole position of the year.

Challenging the Limit

As usual, Saturday’s all-important qualifying session in Monaco will prove pivotal due to the near-impossibility of overtaking in Sunday’s 78-lap race.

But the one-lap exercise in the Principality is typically a high-stakes tightrope walk – where brushing the barriers can mean glory, but overstepping by millimetres ends in disaster.

In that context, Piastri opened up on the fine margins required to master McLaren’s 2025 machine.

"I think we've slowly learnt how to tame it better and better," Piastri admitted. "I think at Imola the car was feeling really good on Saturday."

But as the Aussie explained, things get less predictable on the edge.

"It is a bit difficult, a little bit unpredictable when you get to the limit I would say. It clearly has a lot of pace there but it's not always the easiest to extract just from not being able to fully predict what's going to happen."

The MCL39’s raw pace has helped deliver consistent front-row starts, but Piastri acknowledged the challenge remains in managing its behavior under extreme pressure.

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"Every now and again it is better than what is has been at other races but when you get right to the limit, sometimes it can do slightly unexpected things but overall it's still a very strong car."

One new element that could alleviate some of the stress from qualifying is the introduction of a mandatory two-stop race this weekend, part of Formula 1’s effort to add more strategy and excitement to the notoriously processional Monaco GP.

Piastri believes this could be a game-changer: "A very different race" is how the 23-year-old described what fans might expect on Sunday.

Norris: "We Still Have Things to Improve"

While McLaren has emerged as the standout team of 2025 so far, teammate Lando Norris echoed Piastri’s sentiments that there is still work to be done if the team wants to stay ahead of Red Bull and Verstappen – who is now just 22 points off the top of the standings after his Imola win.

"It still shows that we are vulnerable in certain areas. We still have things to improve on, even though we've had some great weekends where we've looked dominant and we have been dominant," said Norris, reflecting on McLaren’s defeat last weekend in Italy.

"Clearly we still have some weaknesses so it's focusing on the good stuff but try and work on those weaknesses and improve. That's F1, that's life every day in F1."

Norris, who triumphed in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix but has yet to return to the top step since, and who has never won in the glitzy Principality, underlined the emotional value of success in Monaco.

"Winning here is a dream for everyone," he said, confident that McLaren will once again be competitive around the Principality's iconic corners.

The stage is now set for another thrilling chapter in the 2025 championship battle – one that could hinge on who can master the quirks of a car that remains fast, but not always forgiving.

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