Piastri Did Not Think It Was Ever Possible To Overtake Aston Martin In Championship
F1Monday, 13 November 2023 at 01:00
McLaren F1 driver Oscar Piastri said he did not expect overtaking Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship would be possible.
McLaren managed to bounce back from the rough beginning of the season to recently overtake Aston Martin to snatch the fourth position in the Constructors' Championship.
Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso would not believe McLaren could overtake his team as he said McLaren was getting "over-confident" ahead of the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, thinking they could take fourth place in the championship.
Oscar Piastri was recently asked whether he thought it was possible to beat Aston Martin. As reported by RacingNews365, the Australian driver responded:
"Until Austria, no, definitely not. Even the rate that we managed to catch them, I don't think it was really ever a target necessarily to beat them."
Aston Martin has struggled significantly with one of their drivers over-performing the other, but the performance director said the team's main issue has not been the drivers.
Piastri mentioned McLaren focused on making small steps forward which indirectly led McLaren to overtaking Aston Martin in the Championship.
"It was just to try and improve and whatever results we got is what we got. The [development] race has been what it's been - it's been enough to overtake Aston."
Aston Martin's team principal, Mike Krack, recently stated his team "will never give up" and will fight until the end of the season to beat McLaren. Piastri mentioned McLaren also wants fourth place but primarily focuses on the next season.
"Of course at this point of the year, we want to stay ahead of Aston and but very firmly, like the teams around us, we’ve got an eye on next year."
It is 21 points that currently separate the two teams in the Championship with two races remaining in the season. Piastri concluded:
"Hopefully, we can come out strong, but definitely, at the start of the year, we wouldn't expect to have the second half that we’ve had."
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