McLaren boss happy with 'future champion' Piastri: 'Now we need a fast car'

McLaren currently has little reason to cheer. The Woking-based team is fifth in the championship after five Formula 1 races, trailing Ferrari by a whopping 64 points. Something the team is very happy about, however, is the arrival of rookie Oscar Piastri.

McLaren happy with arrival of Piastri

McLaren CEO Zak Brown was very impressed with Piastri's performance in Baku. There, the 22-year-old Australian finished 10th in the sprint race and 11th in the Grand Prix, while feeling ill all weekend. "He just kind of got on with it. I mean, the reports I was getting were, we might pull him out of this session. We might pull him out of the sprint race. And he was right on the edge. And he just kind of put his head down and powered through it. So that was very impressive," Brown said during Friday's press conference in Miami.

In addition, Piastri has generally impressed the McLaren boss in the early stages of his debut F1 season. "Oscar's been impressive since we've had him in the car. He's very mature. He's very focused. He's very technical. So the combination of Lando and Oscar, I couldn't think of a better combination of drivers," the 51-year-old American continued.

Moreover, he does not see Piastri making any major mistakes so far, beyond the usual pushing of limits. Brown also stresses that all F1 races are new to him and that makes his performance all the more crisp. "He's not been to all these races, so early indications are we've got a future world champion on our hands. We just need to work to get him a faster car now," concludes the McLaren CEO.