Oscar Piastri explains why he and Lando Norris are split on McLaren’s new suspension

Oscar Piastri has explained his decision not to run McLaren’s revised suspension design which was introduced at the Canadian Grand Prix.

McLaren introduced a new front suspension in Montreal, which was run only on Lando Norris’ car.

Piastri stuck with the older suspension, which he’s been using for the entire season.

The Australian extended his lead over Norris to 22 points after the race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The change in suspension appeared to favour Norris, who up until F1 qualifying, was the heavy favourite for pole.

However, two errors in qualifying left Norris well down the order, ultimately allowing Piastri to extend his championship lead again.

Speaking after practice in Austria, Piastri confirmed that he’s stuck with the older specification because the new one is simply “different”, not necessarily faster.

“There’s some other bits and pieces I am not using the bits that came in Canada because they’re not an upgrade,” Piastri explained.

“They’re just different. All the parts that we think will make the car faster are on both cars.”

Piastri ended second practice at the Red Bull Ring over a tenth away from Norris’ top time.

Reflecting on Friday practice as a whole, Piastri added: “It looked pretty good. Max is still close. I think he will definitely be a threat this weekend but the car’s feeling good.

“I think the pace is quite good. A positive first day.”

Norris wary of Verstappen’s pace

Norris was forced to sit out of FP1 as McLaren ran one of their junior drivers, Alex Dunne.

Dunne impressed in first practice, setting the fourth-fastest time.

Norris acknowledged Dunne's setup work during his time in the car, which allowed him to get up to speed quickly.

“I mean I don’t mind sitting on the pit wall. I felt a lot more relaxed there than in the car, especially around here,” Norris explained.

“I’ve always enjoyed this place. The car felt good from the off. Alex gave good feedback this morning after FP1 and he was on the pace straight away. It was good to see. I think they’ve moved the car in the right direction for FP2. We just need to understand if we need more or that tomorrow or less or somewhere in the middle. Good steps in the right direction. Still a little more to come hopefully.”

While McLaren enjoyed a 0.3s advantage over Max Verstappen, Norris is still wary of how much Red Bull can improve overnight.

“We’ve shown a bit more pace than some of the others so I think they’re going to catch up,” Norris added.

“Max is not far behind and they usually improve a lot into Saturday. A good day and I am sure we will improve on some things. It’s not as easy as it looked. It’s going to be tight. It always is and there’s no reason for it not to be. We will work hard to make it as big a gap as possible.”