Piastri issues McLaren 'careless' warning in Verstappen fight

Oscar Piastri has warned McLaren can't afford to be "careless" when it comes to battling Max Verstappen for the F1 title this year. McLaren won the opening two rounds of the campaign with Lando Norris and Piastri triumphing in Australia and China respectively. However, Verstappen returned to the top step of the podium last weekend in Japan despite race-long pressure from the McLaren duo. The Dutchman's dazzling pole position lap was credited as a key reason behind his route to victory as mustered the pace to keep the McLarens behind him throughout the grand prix. When asked by media including RacingNews365 if McLaren is taking the Red Bull threat more seriously, Piastri replied: "I don't think it changes much.  "I think we have the quickest car at the moment but our advantage is not enough to be careless and lay back and not execute as best as you can. "We saw Melbourne was a very strong weekend for us but we also got the most out of the car and both of us drove very well. "China, in sprint qualifying, we weren't on pole. China and Japan have both shown that it doesn't take much to go wrong for us to not be at the front." Verstappen's pole position in Japan marked the first time in 15 races he took the start from the head of the grid. However, Piastri stated the close gaps over one lap in Suzuka reflect how unpredictable qualifying has become. "We have an advantage in the race, for sure," he said. "I think qualifying, you have to still be on it because the gap is not much still. "As we saw in Japan, Max put in a good performance and it was enough to be better than us. "So I think that's kind of just another demonstration that it's going to be tight the whole year and we've got to be in our best form."