Oscar Piastri was left in positive mood following the opening day of running at the Italian Grand Prix.
The Australian was fourth fastest in Free Practice 2 having been sixth in the first hour of running.
Both sessions were hampered by red flags, although the McLaren driver was pleased with how his day unfolded.
“I would say pretty good,” he said of his Friday.
“Some things to tidy up definitely, but I think the pace and potential is definitely there, so leaving pretty happy.
“The tyres have been an interesting point today for everybody, so it will be interesting to see what that’s like throughout the rest of the weekend.
“Monza’s a little bit different now with some of the changes they’ve made with the kerbs and the resurfacing and stuff, so taking a little bit to get used to that, but pretty solid Friday.”
The Monza circuit has been resurfaced for this year’s race, and new kerbing has been installed around the venue.
That offers a lower profile design that was formerly in use, allowing drivers to attack certain parts of the lap differently than they had previously.
The new tarmac has proved especially grippy too, which presents its own challenge for teams.
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“The cars are quicker because the tarmac itself kind of gives you grip, but it gives you grip that falls away from you pretty rapidly, and the car can become snappy,” explained McLaren team boss Andrea Stella to Sky Sports.
“Also the track is very smooth, which means you can run a little lower, and we know that with this generation of car, the lower you can run, the more downforce you generate – so the track itself delivers some lap time, because you can exploit the platform of the car at the same time.
“As soon as you start to put laps together, one after the other, without cooling down the tyres, then we see that the behaviour; some weird tyre appearance can actually manifest itself, and this is because the tyres start to operate pretty hot.
“And I don’t think it’s only the temperature, it does have to do with the tarmac.”
The heat was a factor during Friday, with temperatures soaring beyond 30 degrees ambient during the day.
The mercury is forecast to remain there throughout the weekend with stable conditions across Saturday and Sunday.
It promises the make for a gruelling race for the drivers.
“It’s pretty warm, definitely,” Piastri acknowledged.
“Fortunately, Monza is not the most physical track that we go to – it’s a lot of straight, so a of fresh air.
“But, for the tyres, it’s never fun when they’re so hot.
“Same thing for everybody. It’s not as hot, track temperatures, as what we’ve seen in some places this year, but it definitely feels warm enough.”
McLaren heads into this weekend’s race 30 points down on Red Bull Racing in the constructors’ championship, while Lando Norris is second in the drivers’ championship, 70 points away from Max Verstappen.
“I do believe,” Stella said of the team’s championship chances.
“I believe because it’s mathematically possible, and I believe because we have a competitive package overall.
“Competitive package, for me, includes the car, includes Lando, includes the team and Oscar.
“So I think if we achieve this result, which obviously at the moment looks pretty, like it’s distant, but not impossible, it will be, because we get the most out of all these components, including Oscars, being part of the teamwork that is required to support Lando.
“We have conversations every single weekend,” he added on the topic of team orders.
“We had this conversation yesterday with each of the drivers and with the team, and we will have a similar conversation on Sunday morning.
“But it’s still nine races to go, and I think it will be, at the moment, a step too far that for nine races we ask Oscar, ‘Oh, give up your race in favour of Lando’.
“That’s a step too far Lando himself, because that’s not the way he wants to win; he wants to win because he’s strong on track, competitive, and then in some situations where it makes sense.
“We certainly will help him.”
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