Oscar Piastri has put the pressure on McLaren to deliver him an exceptional car for 2024, with the Australian “fully expecting” to be challenging for the leading places in every Grand Prix next year.
The McLaren driver became a star this year in his debut campaign, as he quickly demonstrated similar pace to Lando Norris.
Whilst Piastri had a poor car for the first half of the recently completed season, he was consistently fighting for big points from the Austrian Grand Prix onwards.
It was at the Red Bull Ring where McLaren introduced a huge upgrades package, which turned their season around.
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Piastri went onto finish second in the Belgian Grand Prix Sprint race, before he picked up consecutive podium finishes in Japan and Qatar.
Also, during the Qatar Grand Prix, the young Aussie claimed Sprint race victory after fending off Max Verstappen.
There is no doubting that he is a real contender to become a future World Champion, something McLaren have clearly identified given that he was offered a two-year contract extension.
Now, Piastri is under contract until the end of 2026, meaning he’ll enter the new power unit regulations with the Woking-based squad.
He has already received significant attention from other teams in the paddock, most notably, Red Bull.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner is a big fan of Piastri, although Norris has also been heavily linked to the energy drink company.
Piastri is keen for McLaren to push on in 2024 to ensure that they can battle Red Bull at each race, something the side arguably need to do if they want to keep both drivers long-term.
“I think as a team we’ve tasted a lot more success in the second half of the year,” Piastri said, as per The Mirror.
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“I think we’re fully expecting next year to go into the year fighting for more, or at least making our good weekends we’ve had this year every weekend. But I’m sure Mercedes and Ferrari have the same idea.
“So we will try our best, definitely try and start it a little better than we did this year.
“For myself, I feel like I’ve got much more experience under my belt. And hopefully I can use that for whatever position we find ourselves in.”