McLaren arrived in Barcelona believing it could fight for the win. Oscar Piastri left the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in fifth, almost a minute behind Lewis Hamilton and a full 25 seconds behind team-mate Lando Norris, with no obvious reason for how it had gone so wrong.
The early signs had been encouraging. McLaren looked rapid in practice, enough to spark talk of a victory bid. Then qualifying put Piastri seventh, and the race turned into an afternoon of damage limitation.
Asked whether he could explain the lost performance, Piastri offered little. "No, not really. I was trying a lot of different things and running into a lot of different problems," he said, via RacingNews365. "So I think we were just struggling a lot with grip and tyre life, obviously. I don't have any answers at the moment. I'm sure there will be some answers later, but yeah, it was a surprise to struggle so much."
Most puzzling was the gulf to the sister car. Piastri described the setups as all but identical — "Marginal stuff, but nothing major" — yet Norris ran with the Mercedes pair while he drifted out of contention.
Even his better moments betrayed him. "There were a few laps here and there that felt a little bit better, but that normally came at a price a few laps later, so it was just not an easy afternoon at all," he told Motorsport Week. His takeaway was a plea for understanding: "All I can hope is that we learn why it was so difficult from that."
Norris, third on the day, was candid about McLaren's standing after dominating much of the past two years. "Right now, we are just missing a little bit of everything to consistently fight for wins," he said. "We are making good progress and working exceptionally hard as a unit. Our competitors are doing a slightly better job at the moment." He added: "I think it's tough for us to realise we're not at the same level as what we were. We don't have a car that is just good everywhere."
The sharpest analysis came from team principal Andrea Stella. "Our analysis is very clear: we are reasonably competitive in the high-speed sections but need to add aerodynamic grip to improve in the medium- and low-speed corners, where we are currently losing out," he said. He flagged tyre handling as decisive and conceded a strategic miss: "The three-stop option may have been the better route. However, ultimately Lewis Hamilton looked the strongest on the day, with Ferrari in a condition to contest at the front regardless."
A year ago this was McLaren's race, Piastri leading a one-two. Now Ferrari's upgrade has made it a winner, Mercedes hold a clear edge, and the Miami bounce-back looks fragile. Piastri at least found a crumb of comfort — "it is encouraging to see that on Lando's side, we were able to be in the fight with Mercedes" — before turning his attention to Austria on 28 June, where McLaren needs answers it could not find in Spain.
