McLaren and Ferrari are separated by 30 points ahead of Sunday’s race and could win the title if it extends that margin by 14.

Both Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris head the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on the grid, but are acutely aware of the threat they pose.

“I think if we can win the race, that would be the best way of looking after Ferrari,” Piastri ventured.

“But we’ll see. I think here, it’s quite a unique circuit in that whatever your qualifying pace is, is pretty much your race pace as well.

“I know that we need to finish ahead of them,” he added of sealing the title in Qatar.

“I know it’s 14 points, but I don’t know who needs to finish where.

“The first aim is to finish ahead of Ferrari.”

Piastri won the Qatar GP Sprint after Norris gifted him the victory in the run to the flag earlier in the day.

Norris had started on pole and headed the race, working to keep Piastri in DRS range to help protect him from attack from George Russell in third.

During that encounter, Russell appeared to have the pace on at least Piastri, and potentially Norris had he been released.

His second place on the grid for Sunday’s race, ahead of the two McLarens, therefore did not come as a surprise.

Max Verstappen’s speed, however, did.

The Dutchman comparatively struggled during the Sprint but stormed to his first pole position since the Austrian Grand Prix in June.

“They found a big step,” Piastri observed.

“At the end of Q2, Max’s lap that he did was pretty impressive already, and then he found a little bit more for Q3. It was interesting.”

Ironically, pace from Verstappen and Russell is no bad thing, as it potentially places high-paying points positions out of reach of Ferrari behind.

Should the top four simply hold their starting positions throughout the 57-lap race, McLaren would head to Abu Dhabi needing just five points to seal its first title since 1998.

”It’s definitely there. and I think Sprint today definitely helped with that,” Piastri reasoned.

“But there’s, there’s no kind of overbearing pressure on them.

“We still want to make the car as quick as possible and beat everybody, not just Ferrari.

“Of course, they’re a bit of a higher priority if it comes into a 1 v1 kind of battle,

“But again, the best way to beat them is just by winning the races

“Our focus has been a lot on that and people, just trying to put any bit of extra focus that we have left onto executing as well.”

Victory in the constructors’ championship for McLaren will be monumental, given the squad hasn’t tasted success in the competition since 1998.