“This weekend was stronger than the last few” - Oscar reflects on a challenging race in Italy

Oscar took the positives of an improved weekend for himself as he and Lando returned 22 points for the team from the Italian Grand Prix.

Lando climbed four places over the course of the race, while OP81 in his 81st Grand Prix moved up to fifth. Oscar engaged in battles with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen before he and his McLaren teammate respectfully battled it out to the Chequered Flag.

“It was a good battle, obviously quite a lot of back and forth between us,” Oscar said on Sky Sports. “I would have loved to have hung on to it, but it was a good battle.

“I think I had that kind of race with about three people during it. It was tricky, obviously. When you are against your teammate, you know what strengths and weaknesses they and the car have, which makes things easier in some ways but more difficult in others, but I thought it was good.

“This weekend was a lot stronger than the last few, which is good. Obviously, there is still room to improve, this weekend was a much better step in the right direction, so I am happy about that.”

The McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team had arrived in Monza with balanced expectations for a track that did not match the MCL40’s current strengths, which had been on full display in the previous two races. It meant that there was pleasure in seeing our drivers ride the waves of an action-packed Grand Prix that saw the race Red-Flagged in the opening stages.

And with both Oscar and Lando ending just off the podium, the Australian believes that presented as good a result as could have been hoped for in Italy.

He added to F1 TV: “It was a challenging race for sure, a very different race in Monza compared to what we have seen previously.

“Very yo-yo battling, which was quite difficult to know exactly what the right thing to do was because obviously you can’t give up an easy overtake, but you also don’t want to be losing race time, you want to be going with whoever you are racing, so that was quite difficult to manage but definitely lessons learnt from that one.

“It was a tough battle [with Lando] for sure, we both seemed pretty even, especially in the last few laps, so it was challenging to know when to use your battery, when not to.

“From my point of view, I thought it was good racing, exciting for sure. That was the best result we could have got as a team, so pretty happy.”

Oscar’s feelings were matched by Lando, who after two wins in two races, drove strongly in the latter stages of the race to come home in fourth, just ahead of his teammate.

Reflecting on the performance of the MCL40, the reigning World Champion believes the positives outweigh the negatives, following the upgrades installed over the last three races, though he remains hopeful that they can push on again in the final 10 rounds.

“It was good, a tough fight, good racing from both of us and enjoyable,” Lando said on Sky Sports. “To come out with a P4 for me was a good day, so I am satisfied.

“It is clear today that Mercedes were very, very strong and clearly in a league of their own compared to the rest of us, but we were probably similar to Red Bull, I would say. They just had a better strategy and are better in clean air.

“We suffered with our straight-line speed whenever we got to the front of a pack. I don’t think anything is new - we know what is good, and what is bad, and all the reasons why. The [question] is: can we improve on many of them for the rest of the year? That is going to be the big challenge.

“We know we still have some strengths, but when we go to a higher-speed track again, we can be strong.

“But I think today or this weekend was just a good highlight, even if we won two races, we still have a lot of work to do, and we need to do better as a team, but I am still very confident that we can push through as a team."