Piastri could opt against new McLaren suspension

Jun.25 (GMM) Lando Norris may have crashed out of the Canadian GP by rear-ending his championship-leading teammate, but the British driver could get back in the game from Austria this weekend.

Oscar Piastri, now 22 points ahead of the sister McLaren, has been obviously more comfortable in the 2025 car so far, while Norris consistently complained about feeling uncomfortable with the handling.

According to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, McLaren listened to the 25-year-old Briton.

“The new front suspension is designed to give our drivers more feel,” team boss Andrea Stella said in Montreal.

“We’ve made minor changes to the geometry – nothing dramatic.”

The German publication claims Piastri could have used the new geometry if he had wanted to in Canada, but only Norris had it fitted to his orange car.

Insiders agree that Norris’ was the quicker McLaren in Canada.

“McLaren has been trying out new things,” Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko told Kleine Zeitung newspaper. “Lando Norris was blazing fast in the race before making his mistakes again.”

Stella, however, says the jury is still out about the new suspension.

“The changes are so minimal that it’s difficult for the drivers to determine their effect,” said the Italian. “That’s only possible once we’ve done a back-to-back comparison.”

That will happen this weekend in Austria, but Stella said of Norris’ use of the new parts in Canada: “There were no negative surprises with Lando. He felt comfortable with it.

“Compared to Oscar, Lando was competitive from the start. For us, that means the experiment with the front suspension was a success for him,” he added.

Piastri will try the new suspension during practice at the Red Bull Ring, but he might revert to the old layout for the rest of the weekend. “They could continue to use different suspensions,” Stella confirmed.

“It’s up to the drivers to decide which specification they feel more comfortable with.”

But even if Norris gets the upper hand in terms of outright pace, Marko has already declared that he would bet on Piastri – because of the Australian’s mental strength.

“Of course, you also look at that crash (in Canada),” Marko said, “and you wonder how Piastri was able to continue. Even in practice, he crashed into the wall and made it back to the pits.

“And the engines of Mercedes and Williams blow up – but not with that McLaren,” the Austrian added.

Some think that while publicly maintaining the image of complete driver equality, McLaren will now be putting more of its eggs in the Piastri basket for the drivers’ title.

“This is up to McLaren internally,” Marko said. “But we know that ‘papaya rules’ is now a familiar phrase in Formula 1.”

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