McLaren explains Piastri’s upgrade delay in Budapest

McLaren rolled out its latest technical developments at the Hungarian Grand Prix, seeking to narrow the gap to the front-runners. But while Lando Norris put the revised MCL40 through its paces across Friday’s sessions, Oscar Piastri’s path through practice took a markedly different approach.

The Australian driver ended Friday practice in eighth place, lagging over eight-tenths of a second behind his teammate.

However, the lap time deficit was largely rooted in a planned split-evaluation strategy. Piastri sat out the opening practice session to allow reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli to complete necessary rookie running, which included testing McLaren’s 'Macarena wing'.

When Piastri took the wheel for FP2, he reverted to an older-specification floor to help engineers run direct comparative tests against Norris's updated car.

Strategic split and driver reaction

Despite running without the latest developments on Friday, Piastri says the new components will be implemented on his car for the remainder of the race weekend.

"I'll have the new bits tomorrow, so hopefully that improves things a little bit," said Piastri.

"I don't think it's going to change the world, but I think the Ferraris have looked very quick. I think Lando obviously looked pretty good then. It's hard to read. I feel like if you can do a good, relatively clean lap at the moment, you'll be somewhere at the top, so that's the plan for tomorrow."

In addition to adapting to the car's setup configuration, drivers had to contend with treacherous gusty conditions and complex surface variations at the Hungaroring.

"I obviously heard all the comments from FP1, but living them myself was quite a different experience," Piastri added, reflecting on the wind conditions.

"Just very, very challenging out there for everybody, I think, but just a lot of variables. [It was] very windy. I think the car is naturally quite on edge anyway, and you throw in some wind and it's very tough."

Addressing the track surface, which has undergone partial resurfacing, Piastri noted: "And then the track surface as well. [It's] quite bizarre. In a couple of places where it's been— well, the new bits, actually, where it's worn away, and they've added in some strips of tarmac. It's quite inconsistent. So all of those things are making it pretty tough."

Data correlation and realistic expectations

From a technical perspective, McLaren expressed satisfaction with the correlation of their new aerodynamic parts, highlighting the valuable contribution made by their test and reserve personnel.

Explaining why Piastri was without the new parts, McLaren senior director Randy Singh said:

“The most positive takeaway from our running is that every new component we brought to the track performed as we expected. The drivers all did a fantastic job in what were very difficult conditions on track, especially with the wind, and we gathered a lot of useful data."

"Lando ran the new package all day, with Oscar running the old specification floor in his only session to facilitate our comparative work. Leonardo Fornaroli also played a big part in that during FP1, and his diligent work has been really valuable for our programme and future development.

“We have a solid foundation and feel we have taken a good step in the right direction. We remain realistic about our position. The gap to the front has been significant in recent races, and we always knew we weren’t going to close that in one go.

“However, the signs are encouraging, and this progress gives us confidence that our development path is the correct one. We are reasonably positive and look forward to seeing where we stand in qualifying on Saturday.”

• Read also: Norris hopeful McLaren upgrade will deliver, but track will tell all

On the other side of the garage, Norris offered a measured assessment after putting the new updates through their initial paces during both practice sessions.

“A tricky day, not the easiest two sessions for us,” commented the reigning world champion.

"While we took a step forward this afternoon, we've still got some work to do. We've introduced some new bits on the car today, and we need to understand those a bit better and how we can get them dialled in."

"We know we're not going to catch the guys ahead immediately, so we need to keep working hard, but we're making steps in the right direction in a few areas. We'll work hard overnight to get more out of this package and see what we can do tomorrow.”

With Piastri set to receive the upgraded parts on Saturday, McLaren will look to turn Friday's comparative data into execution when qualifying begins in Budapest.

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