Piastri: 'McLaren wants to be part of the top four this year'

Oscar Piastri made his Formula 1 debut this season with the McLaren team. The Australian won the Formula 2 and 3 championship in his debut seasons. In the Beyond the Grid Formula 1 podcast, he admitted he is happy to be at McLaren.

Last year, there was a lot of fuss around where Piastri would make his debut in 2023. Alpine claimed Piastri would drive for them in 2023. Only the Australian revealed on Twitter that this was without his agreement. It then became clear that the Formula 2 champion would race for McLaren.

McLaren had a disappointing start to the season. The car lacks speed and also proved unreliable, especially in Bahrain. Piastri retired in Bahrain with reliability problems and in Saudi Arabia he finished 15th. Nevertheless, Piastri said that he is enjoying his time with the British team. "I’m very happy to be at McLaren and it’s being going well I think," he said in the podcast.

Piastri said that he and McLaren obviously prefer to compete at the front and they still have that goal. According to the Australian, his team is even aiming for the top four this year. "A lot of people have high expectations of McLaren and we have high expectations of ourselves to try and be fighting for points and for this year try and get into the top four teams. Which is now that Aston Martin is part of that top four I guess a bigger challenge but still one that we are trying to achieve."