by VALERIO BARRETTA
GP Australia, Piastri at his home race
Besides being very talented, Oscar Plates he is a smart boy with personality. The Australian is not afraid of exposing himself: he was not afraid when he abandoned Alpine in favor of McLaren, he is not afraid of clarifying the current hierarchies of Formula 1, which see Red Bull ahead of Ferrari and, at a distance, McLaren , Mercedes and Aston Martin. Although it is at his home race, the #81 has no intention of misleading his fansand clearly states that he will fight for fifth place on Sunday.
Piastri's words
“I think, to be realistic, fighting for third place among the fastest teams is probably where we are at the moment. I think we were one step away from getting close to Ferrari, at least in Jeddah, but at the moment we don't have enough. So I think at the moment the fight is with Mercedes. Hopefully we can grow over the course of the year, but for now I think to go beyond fifth position it will take a bit of luck“, these are the words of the Australian.
In short, Piastri is counting on good luck. The one that already rewarded him last year, when – after spending almost an entire race in 11th position – he took advantage of Alpine's double knockout on the restart to grab his first world championship points: “Yes, I was lucky here in 2023. I will need even more to get on the podium: it would be a special result though“.
Like in Jeddah
McLaren expects to repeat the good performance of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Australia, perhaps without DRS problems and with less bizarre strategies. The curves of Melbourne could favor the MCL38 in the battle against Mercedes (on the contrary it appeared to have more difficulty in the fast sections), and in the same way Piastri would like to get behind Lando Norris again in a GP. It would be the second time in a row: in his short career in F1 it only happened with the Montmeló and Montreal races last season.
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