McLaren’s Oscar Piastri marked the top speed of the race during the F1 2026 Austrian GP, reaching 348 km/h. He managed to climb to P4, ahead of both Ferraris, after qualifying P7 on Saturday.
At the start, the Australian successfully overtook teammate Lando Norris and later followed his rival’s strategy, pitting and staying right in the fight.
Around the halfway mark, Piastri pressured Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who struggled with pace ahead. The McLaren driver attacked Leclerc into turn 3, but both cars touched. A few laps later, as almost everyone stopped, the sequence repeated: Piastri once again overtook Leclerc and took fourth.
Overall, it was a good weekend for Oscar Piastri. So far, his 2026 season has been a mixed bag of results. The McLaren driver had not started in Australia and China, finished P2 in Japan, P3 in Miami, P11 in Canada, and P5 in Monaco and in Barcelona-Catalunya.
After the Austrian GP, Piastri added 12 points to his total in the championship standings. He climbs to P4 with 80 points, just one ahead of his teammate.
Piastri: “It was a bit of a surprise we were able to beat Ferrari”
In the print media pen, Piastri was questioned about whether his performance reflected McLaren’s current maximum potential.
“Yep, that’s pretty much it,” answered the Australian.
Moreover, the McLaren driver noted: “I think to be honest it was a bit of a surprise we were able to beat Ferrari.”
Although they started P2 and P3, the race did not pan out as expected for the men in red. By the end, Hamilton finished P5, behind Piastri and Leclerc P8, behind Norris.
“Obviously, my pace wasn’t quite much. Strategy probably helped us out today with that,” he added. “The pace was a little bit stronger than them, but clearly not strong enough to go and get Mercedes. And obviously, Verstappen being a lot quicker than we expected.”
Piastri concluded: “So that’s where we are.”
Piastri is happy with the result and McLaren’s work behind it
When asked about the improvement from previous weekends and if he was happier with this result, Piastri answered with caution.
“I don’t know about previous weekends. Certainly compared to Barcelona, yes. I think today’s race was similar in some ways and was night and day different for me.”
He further explained: “We put a lot of effort into understanding why Barcelona was so tricky. I think we understood why and attacked things pretty differently for this weekend and today in particular. I think the result is the evidence of that work.
“From that side of things I’m really happy. Just when you don’t get a trophy at the end, you always wish there was a bit more.”
Still, he said honestly: “But that was the absolute most we could have done.”
Outlook on the battle with Ferrari after F1 2026 Austrian GP
Currently, Ferrari sits P2 in the F1 2026 constructors’ championship with 204 points, while McLaren fights to close the gap in P3 with 159.
After beating the Ferrari on track during the Austrian GP, Piastri briefly discussed how he felt about the odds against the team.
“Yes, I think after Barcelona I thought they would be really strong. But that clearly wasn’t the case here,” he mentioned. “I think that’s good news for us in some ways.”
Still, Piastri noted: “We obviously haven’t brought many upgrades. They [Ferrari] had a big upgrade in Barcelona, so we need to try and get some of our own upgrades.”
McLaren’s gap to engine manufacturer Mercedes
Piastri was also asked about the deficit to Mercedes in the straights at the Austrian GP. On whether he understood how much of it was due to drag, deployment, or gears, the Australian said: “Not 100%, no.
“I think on the ratios we have a pretty good idea. I don’t know where exactly it stacks up this weekend.” Piastri warned: “But that’s a very small piece of the puzzle.”
He explained: “Obviously the engines are the same. Maybe there’s something in deployment. We think there’s definitely something in drag.
“We’re working with everyone, firstly on ourselves, trying to get some drag off the car. But also with HPP to try and squeeze some more out of the engine and the deployment as well.”
Piastri on temperature and overtaking in 2026 at the Red Bull Ring
Following the weekend trend, the track temperature was 47 degrees celsius before the race, with the air temperature at 35 degrees. Still, after the GP Piastri said: “It was hard, don’t get me wrong. But compared to some of the races like Singapore or that year in Qatar [2023], today was quite easy.”
While discussing overtaking without DRS and the role of traffic during the F1 2026 Austrian GP, the Mclaren driver said: “I think from where I was sat it wasn’t massively different.
“I managed to get past Charles twice with the same kind of difficulty as DRS. I think being able to follow a bit closer was probably a little bit easier today.”
Yet, Piastri conceded: “But here in the past DRS was worth a lot. Whereas now overtake mode is not really worth that much here. But the slipstream is a lot.
“If you’ve got a bit of tyre difference, which is what I had with Charles, then you could make things happen. But if you didn’t have that then it was tough.”
