While Oscar Piastri admits his testing time in the McLaren MCL39 was an “up and down” experience, there were some “very strong” runs and the car feels “pretty similar” to the MCL38.

And Piastri’s view on the MCL39 feeling similar to drive to its predecessor, is one shared by his team-mate Lando Norris.

Norris and Piastri feel MCL38 vibes to McLaren MCL39

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

While McLaren did not trouble the final timesheet for the three-day F1 2025 pre-season test in Bahrain, it was not the headline times which McLaren put rivals on notice with.

Instead, it was a smooth race simulation for Norris on Day 2 – where he was several tenths up on Charles Leclerc’s comparative effort in the Ferrari – which generated talk in the F1 paddock.

It has been quite the stunning rise for McLaren in recent years, the team going from one of the slowest at the start of 2023 to 2024 Constructors’ World Champions, as the team target a title double in F1 2025. Norris goes into the season as bookies favourite to win his first World Championship.

And Piastri feels McLaren has created a car similar to last year’s in the MCL39, which should in theory bode well for a title push.

That being said, Piastri did urge caution over making confident predictions with these ground effect F1 cars, in what will be the final season for the current regulations before that huge F1 2026 revamp.

Asked by the media, including PlanetF1.com, for his gut feeling on the McLaren MCL39, Piastri replied: “It’s been a bit up and down, I would say.

“I think some of the runs have looked very strong. Others have been a bit trickier. So again, it’s so hard to know.

“And you know, I’m expecting it to be pretty tight once we get to Melbourne next week [sic].

“But, yeah, it felt decent. It felt pretty similar to last year. But you just never know. I think with this generation of car it’s never going to feel as good as you ever want it to. It’s just whether that’s better than everyone else.”

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Norris agrees with his team-mate’s MCL38 vs MCL39 assessment, explaining this ticks off a key McLaren goal.

“It feels similar, which is a good start,” Noris told media including PlanetF1.com on Day 2 in Bahrain. “That’s where we wanted to start.

“Nothing’s been majorly addressed. We’ve just tried to make the car quick all around and add more load, a simple way of looking at it honestly.

“We still want to try and focus on some areas more than others. We’ve struggled a bit more with the rear than we would have liked over yesterday and today. But it’s still early days.

“I think if we want to improve anything at the minute, it’s still the rear of the car. The more you can improve the rear, the more everything just gets better.

“But the rest of it feels correct, and it feels like it’s in the same ballpark, and that’s what we want.

“I don’t think we’re expecting to be a big step ahead of anyone. We’re expecting to be tied alongside the guys to my right [Max Verstappen, Red Bull and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari], but if we’re just there fighting from the beginning, that’s our target, considering how the last few years have been.

“If we can just be there fighting from the off then we’ll be happy.”

The F1 2025 season is approaching fast, with the Australian Grand Prix kicking-off proceedings on March 16.

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