Oscar Piastri admitted McLaren lacked the pace to challenge Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, despite recovering from a slow puncture to finish fifth after a late overtake on Lewis Hamilton.
The Australian completed the race one position behind teammate Lando Norris, securing 10 championship points after a difficult afternoon that included a slow first pit stop and an additional stop caused by a puncture. His recovery provided some encouragement, but Piastri acknowledged that McLaren remained behind the leading cars on outright performance.
Asked by Sky Sports F1 how satisfying his final-lap overtake on Hamilton had been, Piastri played down the significance of the result.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s fifth place. So there’s a cap on the excitement. But no, certainly made it more exciting at the end, which was good fun,” he said.
“So yeah, I felt like it was a reasonable race. Obviously, the puncture was a bit of a shame, but I don’t think it changed things too much.”
Piastri’s assessment came after Max Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix ahead of Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli. McLaren finished fourth and fifth, unable to challenge the leading three despite showing competitive pace during parts of the race.
Slow puncture forces Piastri into an extra stop
Piastri’s race was complicated by a slow first pit stop on lap 34, which dropped him behind Norris. McLaren subsequently detected a slow puncture in his front-right tyre, forcing the Australian to make an unscheduled second stop on lap 42.
The additional stop left Piastri with ground to recover during the closing stages. He was able to take advantage of fresher tyres and Hamilton’s declining pace, eventually overtaking the Ferrari driver on the final lap to secure fifth.
Although the puncture disrupted his strategy, Piastri did not believe it had fundamentally changed the result available to McLaren. His greater concern was the team’s inability to match the pace of its principal rivals.
“We looked okay, I would say, but just we didn’t have enough pace, really,” Piastri explained.
“I think Max and Charles were very quick, clearly, and we seemed a little step behind Kimi. So yeah, I think that was more or less what we could do.”
The admission highlighted McLaren’s position behind Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes at Marina Bay, with Verstappen and Leclerc setting the pace at the front and Antonelli completing the podium after passing Norris and Hamilton.
Piastri’s fifth place also extended his run without a Grand Prix podium to 13 races, having last finished in the top three at Miami in May. The Australian remains seventh in the Drivers’ Championship with 138 points.
McLaren faces growing pressure from Red Bull
The result completed a difficult Singapore weekend for McLaren, which had already lost valuable points when Norris and Piastri collided on the final lap of Saturday’s sprint.
The incident forced Piastri into retirement and left Norris eighth. The FIA subsequently decided against penalising either driver, concluding that neither was predominantly responsible for the collision.
On Sunday, McLaren avoided further incidents between its drivers but could not match the speed of the leading teams. Red Bull has now reduced its deficit to McLaren to just 7 points in the Constructors’ Championship, following Verstappen’s consecutive victories in Malaysia and Singapore.
Norris also acknowledged that McLaren had fallen behind its leading rivals and needed further upgrades to recover competitiveness. The British driver finished fourth but lost an opportunity to challenge for the podium after an unsuccessful attempt to overtake Hamilton allowed Antonelli to move ahead.
The Australian’s assessment therefore reflected a broader problem for McLaren. Although Piastri was able to recover from an additional pit stop and finish fifth, the team lacked the pace to fight consistently with the cars ahead.
Formula 1 returns for the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on October 23–25. GRANDE PRÊMIO continues its Formula 1 coverage as McLaren attempts to defend third place in the Constructors’ Championship.
