Oscar Piastri has dismissed speculation that McLaren could be slowed by a rule change set for June, stating he expects the team to remain strong throughout the season.
The FIA, Formula One's governing body, will introduce more stringent front wing load tests from the Spanish Grand Prix on 1 June to reduce the permitted level of flex, following earlier action on rear wings.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said in Japan last weekend that the change would be significant, with uncertainty about which teams might be affected. "We have a big regulation change coming at race nine. You know, how is that going to affect the run of play?" the Briton told Sky Sports television.
Piastri expressed doubt that the rule change would have much impact on McLaren, who currently lead both championships, with Lando Norris one point ahead 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 four of the championship.
"I don’t think it’ll change too much. I’ve not spoken to the team about it massively, 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, winner in China after Norris took victory at the Australian opener, said he would rather be driving his McLaren than a Red Bull.
While Verstappen has shown that the Red Bull can be a winning car, he is already on his second team-mate of the season, after Liam Lawson was demoted back to Racing Bulls and Yuki Tsunoda was promoted in his place.
"Clearly the car looks pretty difficult. We’ve seen 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 has 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 acknowledged that the McLaren was a tricky car to extract maximum performance from, but said many of the team’s 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 quite happily be choosing ours," he said.
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