Mixed emotions for Piastri: 'Deserved both cars up there'

Oscar Piastri believes he could've joined his McLaren teammate Lando Norris on the podium at the Miami Grand Prix. The Australian has mixed emotions as his teammate won his first race, but he finished outside the points after a fight with Carlos Sainz. 

McLaren upgrades

McLaren introduced upgrades at the Miami Grand Prix. That included parts for Piastri, but he only had half of the upgrades. The rest will come in Imola. Still, Piastri sees it as a good day for the team and thinks he should've been there himself.

"I think they [McLaren] deserve to have both cars up there. I feel like the first half of the race was going very well for us, and then kind of just unraveled from the safety car. So mixed emotions for myself, but obviously for the whole team, an incredible day to win the race on pace. A little bit of good fortune, but we had the pace afterwards. Very, very encouraging for the future," Piastri told Viaplay.

Piastri led the race briefly while the pit window was open. But he dropped away to finish 13th. "I struggled a little bit on the hard, just in traffic. And didn't quite have the same pace as what I did on the medium. But I think it was an encouraging day nonetheless. If we had pitted when Lando did, who knows? But I think a podium was definitely within reach today," Piastri added.

The McLaren team were nervous during the final stages of the race. Piastri was trying to advance through the field, but he picked up warnings on the team radio. McLaren didn't want him to cause a safety car which would put Norris' win in doubt.