Piastri Reacts After First Few Laps in McLaren's New Car: 'Smooth Sailing'

Sunday, 18 February 2024 at 15:45

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri shared his thoughts after the first few laps in McLaren's 2024 challenger MCL38.

McLaren divided their car launch into two parts going into the 2024 season. The first was a livery reveal, which took place on the 16th of January.

The team presented their new livery on the previous year's version of their car. Then, almost exactly one month later, the team followed up with the official launch of their new car.

While McLaren's CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella answered many questions from the media during the livery launch, no press was invited to the official launch of the car itself.

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The Papaya team only shared three photos of the MCL38 through social media, and that was it. Moreover, these photos even appeared to disguise some of the car's aerodynamic details.

Does the British team have something up their sleeve that they didn't want to reveal to the World? Following the launch of the car, McLaren went for a shakedown at Silverstone Circuit.

Both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris had a go behind the wheel of MCL38, and the younger of the two drivers shared his first feelings with the media afterward.

"No surprises today, realy. Felt pretty comfortable and went smoothly, which was good."

As is quite common at Silverstone, the track was damp. It might have complicated a few things for McLaren regarding data collection because drivers just can't push their cars as much on a wet surface.

On the other hand, the Australian driver who had his rookie season last year asserted the shakedown went as well as it could. He added:

"But you never really know what you've got until you compare it to other people, so I think we'll have to wait a little bit longer to see what we've really got. But as these days go, that was smooth sailing."