{"id":1635,"date":"2026-09-04T18:54:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=1635"},"modified":"2026-09-04T18:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:54:34","slug":"piastri-says-mclaren-doesnt-have-the-pace-to-beat-rivals-at-monza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/piastri-says-mclaren-doesnt-have-the-pace-to-beat-rivals-at-monza\/","title":{"rendered":"Piastri says McLaren \u201cdoesn\u2019t have the pace\u201d to beat rivals at Monza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Oscar Piastri admitted McLaren does not currently have the pace it needs<\/strong> to fight the leading teams at Monza.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Australian improved from 11th in FP1 to sixth in FP2<\/strong>, finishing 0.469s behind Mercedes\u2019 George Russell.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Piastri believes McLaren has a strong foundation of data<\/strong> to work from overnight ahead of FP3 and qualifying.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oscar Piastri made it clear that <strong>McLaren does not yet have the pace required to beat its main rivals<\/strong> at the Italian GP, the 13th round of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Despite that assessment, the Australian was encouraged by the amount of information gathered during Friday\u2019s 2 practice sessions at Monza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The #81 McLaren finished <strong>11th in FP1<\/strong>, setting a 1:24.184 lap that left him 1.176s behind Charles Leclerc\u2019s Ferrari. Piastri made significant progress in FP2, moving up to <strong>sixth with a 1:23.028<\/strong>, although he remained 0.469s behind Russell\u2019s Mercedes benchmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McLaren\u2019s Friday program focused on different setup directions, fuel loads and tire programs as the team worked to understand its package at Monza\u2019s high-speed, low-downforce circuit. The team also evaluated its H-Wing aerodynamic configuration during the sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe first day in Monza is done. We\u2019ve learned a decent amount and collected a lot of data, which gives us a solid foundation to work from overnight,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s lots for us still to learn and maximize as we don\u2019t have the pace we need right now. We\u2019ll focus on unlocking more performance overnight and see what more we can take from FP3 into qualifying,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Piastri\u2019s comments were consistent with McLaren\u2019s assessment of the opening day. The team said its performance was <strong>where it expected it to be coming into the weekend, but not where it wanted to be<\/strong>, and acknowledged that it was still some way off the leading group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lando Norris ended FP2 fourth, 0.384s behind Russell, while Piastri was sixth. The gap to the front therefore remains relatively small on paper, but McLaren knows it needs to extract additional performance before qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With <strong>FP3 and qualifying still to come on Saturday<\/strong>, McLaren will now use the overnight data to refine the setup and improve its energy management and outright pace. The battle at the front remains extremely tight, with Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren separated by fractions of a second in FP2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/strong> will continue to follow all the action from the <strong>Italian GP<\/strong>, the 13th round of the 2026 Formula 1 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. How did Oscar Piastri perform in Italian GP practice?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Piastri finished 11th in FP1 and sixth in FP2<\/strong> at Monza. His best FP2 time was 1:23.028, 0.469s behind George Russell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. What time is F1 qualifying at Monza?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Italian GP qualifying is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, September 5.<\/strong> It will set the starting grid for Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Can McLaren challenge Ferrari and Mercedes at Monza?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McLaren remains within striking distance, but <strong>Piastri acknowledged that the team does not currently have the pace it needs<\/strong>. McLaren will use FP3 and overnight analysis to search for additional performance before qualifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oscar Piastri was encouraged by the amount of data McLaren collected on Friday but admitted the team still needs to find more performance to challenge its rivals at the Italian GP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020313698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Oscar Piastri","42wp_featured_image_credits":"McLaren","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,294,10,112],"42wp_author":[58],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-italian-gp","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri","42wp_author-vicente-soella"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1636,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions\/1636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020313698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}