Piastri 'surprised' by McLaren practice gap to Ferrari in Monaco

Oscar Piastri says McLaren faces a steep uphill battle in Monaco after Friday practice left the team over a second adrift of the pace. Finishing seventh in FP2, Piastri admitted the deficit to Ferrari and session leader Lewis Hamilton caught him off guard, while cautioning that modern Formula 1 offers no quick fix to fundamentally transform a car overnight.

Why it matters:

Monaco remains one of McLaren’s strongest venues, with Lando Norris having secured pole and victory here just 12 months ago. A failure to recover qualifying pace would mark a serious strategic setback for a team expected to fight at the sharp end, particularly with Ferrari already demonstrating race-winning speed. At a circuit where overtaking is nearly impossible, grid position is everything.

The details:

• Piastri ended FP2 in seventh, trailing Hamilton by just over one second. The team made incremental gains from FP1, trimming the deficit from around 1.5 seconds to roughly one second, but the Australian made clear the overall shortfall remains far too large.
• Ferrari's pace: Piastri acknowledged McLaren always expected Ferrari to be quick around Monaco, yet the actual margin proved far wider than projected.
• No overnight miracles: The Australian effectively ruled out revolutionary changes. "In today's F1, there's never anything you can do to turn the car completely upside down," he said, adding he has "no great ideas" to bridge the gap before qualifying.
• Strong history: The struggles are especially concerning given Piastri's Monaco pedigree, having finished on the podium twice at this circuit.

What's next:

McLaren's engineers now face intense pressure to extract lap time from a package that looks fundamentally misplaced on Monte Carlo's tight streets. Piastri said the team must "find something," but sounded skeptical about a dramatic resurgence. Without a significant setup breakthrough before qualifying, McLaren risks starting on the back foot at a venue where track position decides the race.