Oscar Piastri has brushed off suggestions that McLaren will be hindered by a rule change in June, asserting that he expects the team to remain strong throughout the season.
Starting with the Spanish Grand Prix on June 1, the FIA will impose stricter front wing load tests to limit flex, following previous adjustments made to rear wings.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner noted in Japan last weekend that the change could have a major impact, with uncertainty about which teams will be affected.
“We have a big regulation change coming at race nine. How is that going to affect the run of play?” the Briton told Sky Sports.
Piastri doubted it would make much difference to McLaren, which leads both championships, with Lando Norris a point clear of Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen, the winner at Suzuka last Sunday.
“I’m pretty confident we’ll be strong all year,” the Australian told reporters ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Round 4 of the championship.
“I don’t think it’ll change too much. I haven’t spoken to the team about it much, in all honesty, which probably tells you enough about that.
“Let’s see when we get to Spain, but we’ve still got a lot of races until then, and I think we’ll be a strong team all year round.”
Piastri, who won in China after Norris triumphed in the Australian opener, said he would rather be driving his car than a Red Bull.
While Verstappen has shown the car can win, he’s already on his second teammate of the season after Liam Lawson was demoted back to Racing Bulls with Yuki Tsunoda moving in the opposite direction.
“Clearly, the car looks pretty difficult. We saw that with Liam. We saw it with Checo (Sergio Perez) last year, even with Yuki in Japan,” said Piastri.
“I think going into an environment that’s been so focused on the way Max drives for nearly 10 years now — it would be a very tough environment to go into and have immediate success.
“I’m quite happy that I’m driving a McLaren and not a Red Bull at the moment.”
Piastri said the McLaren was a tricky car to extract maximum performance from, but many of its ideas and philosophies were similar to last year.
“If I had to pick out of all 10 cars on the grid right now, I’d still pretty happily be choosing ours,” he said.