Contrary to what could be expected until the Canadian GP, McLaren managed to surpass Aston Martin in the Formula 1 World Championship, now being in fourth place among constructors. The Woking team has been one of the forces fighting for podiums regularly – failing only three times since the British GP. Two of these top three finishes were achieved by Oscar Piastri.
According to the website RacingNews365.com, the rookie was asked if it seemed possible to surpass the Silverstone team, replying: ‘Until Austria, definitely not. Even with the pace at which we caught up with them, I don’t think beating them was necessarily ever a goal. It was just about trying to improve and whatever results we got, we got. The development race was what it was – it was enough to surpass Aston’.
At this point, McLaren is dividing its attention between the goals for 2023 and the preparation for 2024, according to Piastri, who admitted that the second half of the season exceeded expectations: ‘Of course, at this point in the year, we want to stay ahead of Aston, but very firmly, just like the teams around us, we have an eye on next year. Hopefully, we can come out strong, but definitely at the beginning of the year we wouldn’t have expected to have the second half we’ve had’.
