On another difficult weekend for Oscar Piastri in F1 2026, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella discussed his Spanish GP and the challenges his driver is facing. The driver of car #81 had to settle for 8th on Sunday.
In 2025, the 25-year-old was absolutely outstanding for most of the year, before ultimately falling short of the F1 crown as mistakes crept in, plus struggles on low-grip circuits. Under the new regulations where the cars have far less downforce, he has been struggling against Lando Norris quite often recently.
In Budapest and at Zandvoort, his British World Champion stablemate was significantly faster in race trim. At the Madring on Saturday, Piastri was a full 0.470s slower than his teammate in Q3 as Lando Norris took pole. In fact, the gap would have been over 0.7s if the driver of car #1 had not messed up the final corner.
Starting P7 on the hard tyres, two bits of contact with George Russell at turn 1 damaged the left-hand side of the front wing of the driver from Melbourne. He lost spots to Colapinto, Lawson and Lindblad to slide to 10th.
Once he got into clean air when the Alpine and Racing Bulls driver’s pitted under the VSC, he closed down a 12s gap to the New Zealander. Unfortunately for Piastri, he came out behind Lindblad and Colapinto when he boxed on lap 42; Lawson rejoined ahead and gapped them. The Aussie did overtake the Brit into turn 1 with a lovely move, but he could not get the Argentinian in the end as overtaking was incredibly hard.
Andrea Stella on Oscar Piastri’s damage at the 2026 F1 Spanish GP
Speaking in his print media session post-race, the Italian explained how significant the damage was. He also outlined the concerns about potential graining because of the loss of downforce.
“The front wing damage cost Oscar a few units of aero balance. So definitely very measurable.
“We were actually quite worried that this would have caused a lot of draining because the front end lost a lot of downforce. As a matter of fact, and thankfully, the hard tyres were hard and resistant enough not to open up the graining so Oscar could stay in the race.
“When it comes to Oscar, I think the race was definitely compromised by not only the damage on the car but having lost further positions at the start. So I think even without the damage it would have been a difficult race to get more out of the situation in which he found himself.”
McLaren hoping to unlock the Australian’s potential with the MCL40
Following the race on Sunday, Oscar Piastri trails Lando Norris by 66 points in the Drivers’ Championship. The Aussie is seventh in points, with the Brit three places ahead.
While there has been strong performances like Japan, Austria and Monza, it is fair to say the nine-time race winner has not fully got to grips with the MCL40 on a consistent basis.
Andrea Stella admitted after the 2026 F1 Spanish GP that Oscar Piastri is currently having too many thoughts while he is driving, showing he is struggling to understand this year’s car at times, as well as having a lack of trust in it. Like any driver, when they are in the flow and flying along, it comes naturally behind the wheel.
The McLaren Team Principal believes qualifying higher is the start of the process. Along with help from the team, the Italian engineer expects the Australian to rediscover his best form ahead of the last part of 2026.
“I think with Oscar we need to qualify better and stay closer to the podium finish position right from the start. In Monza he was P3 at the end of qualifying but somehow we managed to start P6 for the impeding.
“So there are several circumstances of which we need to take more control, we need to execute better. And then at the same time, we need to get more in tune between Oscar and the MCL40 because still Oscar is driving and thinking. And when you drive and think, things get slowed down. You are slower as a driver in terms of deciding what to do and ultimately you are slower in terms of lap time.
Improvements
“I think the agenda is very clear as to what we have to improve. And I expect, like I always say, that we will get on top of that and we will see a strong Oscar in the final part [of the year].
