Rookie Oscar Piastri’s car is set to be fitted with several upgrades at this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
McLaren only fitted Norris’ car with the new upgrades last weekend at the Austrian Grand Prix, where he massively benefitted from the new parts.
The Briton did excellently in Spielberg to finish fourth, giving the impression that the upgrades could push Piastri up the order at Silverstone.
Norris and McLaren have previously performed very well in Austria though, meaning Piastri is taking the new upgrades with a “pinch of salt”.
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Despite this, the Aussie is “optimistic” that the new parts will make him quicker.
“Having the upgrades we had last week obviously looked very good,” said Piastri, as reported by Speedcafe.com.
“I want to take it with a pinch of salt knowing that historically, it’s been quite a good track for the team and for Lando so we’ll see how we go this weekend.
“But I think we can be optimistic that we’ll at least be quicker than we were at the start of the year before Austria.”
The most noticeable difference in Austria was that Norris boasted very good race pace, whilst his one lap pace compared to Piastri wasn’t too different.
As a result, Piastri believes the new upgrades will make him stronger on Sunday, following information he’s gained from his team-mate and McLaren.
“From the numbers standpoint, for the engineers, it was as expected, the correlation was good,” added Piastri.
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“Speaking with Lando, and listening to his comments publicly as well, it doesn’t sound like it changes how you have to drive the car that much, so it should be just a quicker car hopefully.
“The interesting thing from last weekend was the race pace seemed a step better. Over one lap, in the package I had, without the track limits in Q2, we would have been in Q3, and we were quicker than other cars that also had their laps deleted.
“So over one lap, I don’t think there’s a difference, but in the race, before Austria, if we could have kept up with a Ferrari for even two laps, we would have been very happy so it clearly looks like a step forward, and hopefully that continues.”