Oscar Piastri believes McLaren could face multiple threats in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix based on the pace shown in Friday practice.
McLaren has regularly looked quick on Fridays and duly did so again in Barcelona, with Piastri topping FP2
“it’s been a bit of an up-and-down day – I think ending on an up, which is good,” Piastri said. “But our competitors look quick. I think Verstappen’s been quick all day, Ferrari have been there. Mercedes popped up at the end; so it’s going to be a tight battle tomorrow, I think. But definitely still some things to try and work on.
“We definitely expected Red Bull to be quick, so that’s not a big surprise. But just trying to make the car a bit faster, really, that’s all. We’ve tried a few things today. Some have been good, some have been not so good. We’re learning, so I think it’s been a good day.”
Norris slipped to fourth fastest in the second session – setting an identical lap time to Verstappen – and admits some subtle setup changes did not improve his car from what had been a strong starting point.
“A decent Friday,” Norris said. “Felt better in FP1 than I did in FP2, but we’re trying things and we’ll keep trying to improve for tomorrow … It’s tiny things. Something we always do very well is just turn up with a good baseline, and find it difficult to improve from that point onwards – which is a good thing, not a bad thing. It allows us to try different directions and get a bit of a feel. But that’s stuff we’ll go over now.”
While he was competitive over one lap, Verstappen also feels there is more to come from Red Bull as he was not totally satisfied with t he handling of his RB21.
“It’s always nice to be here – the track is always very enjoyable to drive,” he said of the Barcelona circuit. “It’s quite hot out there as well, especially for the tires, but I think it was an OK Friday. We’ve had worse Fridays. I felt a bit happier with the car. We’re still not where we want to be, but it was definitely a bit more positive.
“Of course every track is a bit different but I still want a better feeling from the car. But I’ve also had Fridays where we were completely out of it, so it’s a bit more in the middle I would say.”
As for the impact of the new stricter front wing tests this weekend, Verstappen said they had about the impact he anticipated – not much.
