his first victory of the season<\/a>, finishing ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPiastri\u2019s comparison with Ferrari concerned the cars\u2019 underlying competitiveness. Ferrari nevertheless finished third and fourth, with both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc ahead of the Australian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For McLaren, the result reinforced the need to respond to its rivals\u2019 progress rather than rely on race circumstances to create opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tyre change helps Piastri recover, but the pace is missing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Piastri abandoned McLaren\u2019s initial medium-tyre choice and switched to intermediates before the standing start. The change helped him navigate the wet opening phase, while drivers who remained on slicks struggled for grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His performance improved on the hard tyres later in the race. He was closing on Leclerc before the late neutralisation interrupted that pursuit, removing an opportunity to continue reducing the gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Australian ultimately finished sixth, ahead of Liam Lawson, while teammate Lando Norris took ninth after losing positions during the final Safety Car period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contrasting incidents did not change McLaren\u2019s overall diagnosis: its car was not competitive enough to fight at the front.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nStella says sixth was McLaren\u2019s maximum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Team principal Andrea Stella reached the same conclusion in McLaren\u2019s post-race assessment. He rated the team\u2019s package fourth in the competitive order and distinguished its performance limitations from the operational choices made during the afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven if we\u2019d got every decision spot on, I don\u2019t think we could have achieved any higher than Oscar\u2019s sixth place,\u201d Stella said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stella called for a detailed review of the last two rounds to understand how McLaren could recover the competitiveness it demonstrated around the summer break. He also identified Red Bull as a rival that had made significant progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team now has only a few days to analyse Sepang before another race weekend. Singapore\u2019s Sprint format will give McLaren less practice time to prepare its car and respond to the problems exposed in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Formula 1 returns next weekend, from 9\u201311 October, for the Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay. GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/strong> will cover all the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\nF1 today: FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWhy did F1 cars lose power before the Bahrain GP in Malaysia?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The FIA identified a combination of low engine speed, low grip, wet-weather energy management settings and Sepang\u2019s sector configuration. It distributed a software update before the race and announced a full review with teams and power unit manufacturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can Kimi Antonelli win the F1 championship in Singapore?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
No. Antonelli leads George Russell by 84 points<\/strong>, but even a Singapore Sprint and Grand Prix double would not secure the title. Austin on 25 October is his earliest possible opportunity<\/strong>, depending on his results and those of the remaining contenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen is the next F1 race, and is Singapore a Sprint weekend?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The next race is the Singapore Grand Prix on 11 October<\/strong>, with track activity beginning on Friday, 9 October. It is a Sprint weekend<\/strong>: Sprint qualifying takes place on Friday, followed by the Sprint and Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri finished sixth in the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia as Andrea Stella acknowledged McLaren had only the fourth-fastest package at Sepang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020317155,"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":[{"id":14,"location":""}],"footnotes":"","42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[630,10,112,248],"42wp_author":[14],"class_list":["post-3443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-bahrain-grand-prix-in-malaysia","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-singapore-gp","42wp_author-daniel-balsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443","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=3443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3444,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3443\/revisions\/3444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020317155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3443"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=3443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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