Lando Norris won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix and McLaren looked set for a one-two in tricky conditions before both he and Piastri ran wide in the latter stages.
While Norris recovered and hung on to win, Piastri fell out of the points and did well to recover to ninth.
The final margin of victory belied the pace the team had, with Safety Car interventions eliminating a significant advantage over Max Verstappen, who ran third for much of the race before finishing second.
McLaren was the car to beat in Melbourne leading some to suggest the papaya operation has a significant advantage over the field.
The squad headed into pre-season testing as favourites and has served only to reinforce that belief in the early stages of 2025.
However, Piastri warns against reading too much into the current situation; his car may be fast, but there’s only been one race.
“Clearly our car was very strong in Melbourne, I think there’s no denying that,” he reasoned.
“We got to a place where it was also handling well.
“Of course, racing drivers, we’re never going to have everything we want, but I think it was clear that in all conditions in Melbourne, our car was very strong.
“It’s just one race,” he stressed.
“It’s been a track that’s been competitive for us the last couple of years, even when our car wasn’t ‘more dominant than a Red Bull’.”
He comments come in response to claims for George Russell who suggested McLaren’s new weapon is the class of the field – more so than the Red Bull ever was.
As the Mercedes driver made that suggestion, Lando Norris his McLaren’s behaviour, suggesting it’s incredibly difficult to drive.
“One of those statements is pretty far-fetched,” Piastri smirked.
“I’ll let you decide which one.”
Underscoring the pace McLaren had in hand in Melbourne, even following his off, Piastri was able to storm back through the field on a circuit that is notoriously difficult to pass on.
That was capped off by a brazen final-lap pass on Lewis Hamilton as he recovered to ninth at the chequered flag, driving around the outside of Ferrari’s newest recruit at the ultra-fast Turn 9 left-hander.
“At that point, there was a range of emotions going on,” Piastri said of the last lap pass.
“I knew at that point, if it didn’t work, I was going to potentially lose a point.
“I was just very determined to try and make up one more spot.
“The fact that it was Lewis didn’t really change anything for me, I think I would have tried it no matter who it was – I did try it on someone else, actually. It didn’t go so well!
“It was a very satisfying move to look back on, but I would rather not have to make overtakes like that in the first place.”
Piastri was out of position after running wide at Turn 12 and spinning into the grass at Turn 13 as he recovered.
He lost the better part of a lap as he re-joined the race, ending his chance of a famous home win.
The Australian remains circumspect, suggesting the Albert Park performance was strong but that the pack will close in as the season wears on – with a sample size of one, it’s too early to make sweeping statements for the year ahead.
“We’ll go to different tracks where we’ll struggle more,” Piastri reasoned.
“If [Russell] wants to write off his season after the first weekend then I’ll let him do that.
“But I think we’re very aware that Melbourne was an exceptional weekend, rather than what we’re expecting to be the norm.”
That’s a view the 23-year-old holds of his own performance too, even allowing for the mistake on Sunday.
While there was far more on offer, there were positives to takeaway regardless of the ultimate disappointment.
“It obviously hurt after the race,” Piastri said.
“But I think there was a lot of positives to take form the whole weekend.
“Through all practice and qualifying, I built my weekend really well.
“I feel like I performed well in qualifying as well.
“Whilst the result maybe didn’t look anything too different from last year, my own personal feeling was a lot stronger.
“The race as well was very strong, apart from one corner.
“With hindsight, apart from maybe taking up some rally driving lessons through gravel, I’m not sure there’s much I could have done too differently.
“Even from a race craft point of view I was pretty happy with some overtakes, so there’s a lot of positives to take from that.”
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