For the ‘fifth time’ – Oscar Piastri responds to McLaren suspension question

Oscar Piastri has reiterated for the “fifth time”, McLaren have not upgraded the MCL39’s front suspension, they just tweaked the geometry, and for Spa he’ll still be racing the old layout.

McLaren revised the front suspension geometry at the Canadian Grand Prix, not for performance, but to change the way the front wheels react and give the driver a bit more feedback through the steering wheel.

Oscar Piastri: I’m still on what I’ve been running

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Only Norris, though, swapped to the new geometry.

But while Canada overall marked a disappointing weekend for McLaren as they lacked the pace to fight for the podium before Norris clipped the back of Piastri late in the race and crashed out, the Briton has since gone on to win in Austria and again in Britain.

Leading home Piastri in back-to-back 1-2 results, Norris has closed the gap on his team-mate to just eight points at the halfway mark of the F1 2025 championship.

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella hinted that Piastri may try the revamped suspension.

“The different front suspension set-up does not complicate the way we look at the data, [nor] the way we compare how well the two cars are doing from a car performance point of view or a driving performance point of view,” he said after Silverstone.

“That’s not a problem itself. If anything, it is more a problem from a parts point of view, because we need to have various specifications that we carry with us.

“We are actually discussing whether some of the options adopted by Lando might be interesting for Oscar in the future. This will be evaluated.”

But despite his team-mate’s recent success, Piastri has not made the change.

Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, at Spa, the championship leader insisted that “both” McLaren drivers have the latest suspension, they are just on different geometries.

“We both have the new suspension upgrade, but the geometry change. I’m still on what I’ve been running,” he said.

Asked why he didn’t want to run the suspension that Norris has been using, the Australian lamented: “Okay, this is like the fifth time I’ve explained it now.

“It’s not an upgrade, it’s just a different part. I’ve tried in the sim, but whilst we have other actual upgrades still coming through, I want to get as clear of a read on that as I can.

“It’s a very minor change, like I’ve said before. It’s supposed to help in some ways, but it makes certain things worse.

“So if it was as simple as being a benefit, then I would put it on and not ask any questions. But that’s not the case.”

Piastri did, however, confirm to The Race that he is open to trying Norris’ layout in the coming weeks, but that for now he’d rather stick to the layout he knows as McLaren introduce other new parts to the MCL39.

“There have been some conversations about it, and I probably will try it at some point,” Piastri told The Race.

“Whether I continue to stick with it, I don’t know. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s a very minor change.

“Directionally, it should help, but the way I looked at it, or still look at it, is that is such a minor thing and we’ve had some upgrades in the last races, we’ve had other things to work on.

“While that’s not a big deal, I would rather keep it [the front suspension set-up] the same and get as accurate a read I can on the other big things we are changing, and I’ve not particularly felt the need to go in that direction.

“There are things I would change with the car, but that is not one that’s been at the forefront of my complaints.

“I might change at some point. Like I’ve said a few times, it’s not an upgrade. If it was purely a benefit, then I would put it on and not ask any questions.

“But whilst we have some actual upgrades come along, I thought it was just best to have a clean read on those.”

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