Piastri finished second in Monaco to Charles Leclerc after qualifying on the front row of the grid two weeks ago.

A week prior, he’d been second fastest in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, before being demoted to fifth on the grid.

He’d run second to Max Verstappen through the opening stages of the Miami Grand Prix, too, in what has been a positive run of results for the Australian.

“The last three weekends have been very solid, I think, for the whole team, but also for me personally,” Piastri began.

“Monaco was really the first time that we got a really strong result out of it.

“Clearly the car is performing well at the moment and I feel like I’ve taken a step forward as well and been able to build some consistency in the last few weekends, which is always nice.

“I feel like I’m in a good place.”

McLaren has taken a clear step forward since upgrades were introduced for the Miami Grand Prix.

They were enough to power Lando Norris to victory, his first in Formula 1, though Piastri only benefitted from half the package that weekend.

In Imola, he had the full suite which he used to deliver the second fastest time in Saturday’s qualifying.

The package addressed some of the peakiness of the McLaren, traits that had become inherent in the car since a major upgrade at the Austrian Grand Prix last year.

Where it was especially strong in highspeed sections, it was wanting through slower and medium speed content.

That profile has been flattened, with the car now good across the entire map, though with the gains at the slower end coming at the expense of some highspeed performance.

However, the flipside is a more rounded car that heads into every weekend as a serious contender.

“I think we can be pretty confident that we’ll be somewhere in the mix, which is pretty exciting to say,” Piastri said of his chances in Canada this weekend.

“I don’t know if we’ll be the favourites, so to speak, but I don’t really know who you can say are the favourites at the moment.

“Excited to see where we come out. Hopefully it’s better than finishing 11th.

“We’re definitely in the mix now, and I think the last few weekends have proven that on very different tracks.”

Opening practice for the Canadian Grand Prix begins at 13:30 local time on Friday (03:30 AEST Saturday) ahead of Free Practice 2 at 17:00 (07:00 AEST).