Speaking to the press in Shanghai on Thursday, Lando Norris and George Russell made contrasting statements: George believes McLaren can win every race this season, while Lando insists the MCL39 is difficult to drive and that his rivals will be stronger this weekend than they were in Melbourne.
Reporters asked Oscar Piastri to comment on both of these statements, and the Australian McLaren driver responded: “I think one of these statements is quite far-fetched. I'll let you decide which one.
I think it's pretty obvious that our car was very quick in Melbourne. There's no point in denying that. I think we made it handle well. You know, drivers never get quite what they want, but it was obvious that in those conditions in Melbourne our car was very quick. And George has said some funny things in the last few weeks. We'll see.
We have just one race behind us on a track where we have been competitive in recent years, although our car has not been as dominant as Red Bull. We will have more problems on other tracks – that is for sure.
If George wants to write off the entire season after the first weekend, that's his right. But we are very aware that the weekend in Melbourne was an exception, not the expected norm.”
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