We obviously need to find some pace for next week," said Piastri.
Earlier in the weekend, McLaren faced severe balance struggles during Friday practice sessions, with Piastri finishing more than one second behind pace-setter Lewis Hamilton.
"It felt okay, just not as speedy as we would like, unfortunately, so it was a difficult one," said Piastri, as reported by motorsport.
com.
The team worked overnight on Friday to resolve tire warm-up issues in the opening sector after struggling to find performance on the short street circuit.
"We made a bit of progress for FP2, but we went from a second and a half off to a second off.
So, it's been a tough day for us. Some things to find overnight," said Piastri.
The massive performance gap to the front rows surprised the garage, as McLaren expected to challenge closer to the leading pace based on their low-speed performance data.
"We always expected Ferrari to be quick, and they look very, very quick as well, but we were hoping we would be a fair bit closer," said Piastri.
With regulations limiting major setups adjustments between sessions, the crew had limited options to completely alter the vehicle handling ahead of qualifying.
"Let's see what we can try and muster up for tomorrow," said Piastri.
Piastri noted that modern car setups provide very narrow margins for error when extracting single-lap performance on tight tracks.
"In today's Formula 1, there's never anything you can do to turn the car completely upside down.
