"Oscar Piastri is doing a great job": McLaren's new recruit impresses Karun Chandhok

F1 presenter Karun Chandhok appreciated McLaren's latest recruit Oscar Piastri's performance this season so far, mentioning that he has been close to Lando Norris during the races and the qualifying sessions.

Although the performance of both the drivers hasn't been the best one, that is largely because of the MCL60, which has failed to be competitive enough against its rivals.

However, in the matter of standings, Oscar Piastri is six points behind his teammate with four points after the Miami Grand Prix, where the MCL60 was near to being horrible and gave both the drivers an out-of-points finish.

Chandhok feels that the fact that Piastri did not have an opportunity like Lewis Hamilton to get a competitive car during his rookie season has held him back because according to him, the Australian has performed close to his teammate.

Chandhok said:

"You've got to mention Oscar because I think he's actually in a tricky position. When you arrive in F1 you you want to make an impact, you want to make a name for yourself, and straight away you think of when Lewis arrived in 2007- car at the Forefront- nine podiums in a row to start his career."

"Oscar's not got that opportunity and he's actually doing a great job. In Miami, 900ths of Norris in qualifying, in Baku, 32 thousandths of Norris in qualifying. He's actually doing a cracking job I think but it's just sort of going under the radar."

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Chandhok feels 'it's tough' for Oscar Piastri to showcase his performance

Oscar Piastri won the Formula 2 world championship in 2021 and made his debut in F1 this season. He was first expected to move to Alpine, however, things took quite a turn after he made his way to McLaren, replacing Daniel Ricciardo in the team.

His entry into the team was hyped around as the team was still trying to recover from the 2022 season's downfall. However, it is still questionable as to how good his performance is. For this, Chandhok feels that he needs a better car to showcase his actual skills because most fans would overlook it. He said:

"Oscar, you know, unless it's people like us who go and deep dive and look into the results and look at these numbers (comparison to Norris), 99% of the people don't really know, you know, that he's actually not far off Norris. So I think it's tough. I think it's a lot tougher."

Five races into the season, Oscar Piastri has had his first DNF already, at his first-ever Formula 1 race. His best finish this season has been P8, at his home race in Australia. It is expected that with further developments the team could get better, but it remains under question with their performance in the more recent years.