Oscar Piastri has looked at his progress with the MCL40, as well as believing F1 World Champion and McLaren teammate Lando Norris has overachieved at times in 2026.
Following a painful World Championship loss to the Brit last year, having led the standings for most of 2025, the 24-year-old has had his struggles with the new generation of cars.
This year’s car has proven very difficult to drive. The rear of the car especially has been a big weakness, making it difficult for both drivers to trust it and attack corners like they would to. Piastri has struggled more with Norris than it in F1 2026.
Nonetheless, the driver from Melbourne has made some inroads following very tough weekends towards the end of the European leg.
Until his massive lock-up in Baku when battling Isack Hadjar for P3, the Aussie was delivering a very strong weekend. In Malaysia, before the VSC that turned into a full Safety Car, the driver of car #81 was quick on the hards, hunting down Charles Leclerc for what would have been a net P5 at that stage.
Last weekend at the 2026 F1 Singapore GP, Piastri was slower than Norris throughout the weekend. However, he delivered in SQ3 when the Brit did not, and he should have finished ahead in the Sprint until their collision occurred. In the Grand Prix itself, the World Champion qualifed and finished ahead as he used his slight extra pace.
After Marina Bay, 63 points separate them in the Drivers’ Championship.
The Australian on trying to tweak his driving style to get more pace out of the MCL40
Asked in a print media session ahead of the Singapore GP to assess his progress and whether he can get more comfortable with the MCL40, Oscar Piastri reflected on the gains he has made by adapting through the campaign.
Nonetheless, the nine-time race winner admitted he will never have full trust or confidence in this year’s car as it is quite far away from his natural driving style.
“I think in the short term, yes, it’s probably as good as it’s going to get.
“But naturally when you start giving yourself evidence of being able to drive a bit differently and in ways that aren’t that natural, they slowly become more natural.
“So I think Malaysia was another good step forward in terms of understanding what I need to do and not having to work quite so hard to get there, and getting there a little bit more intuitively and without as much effort, which is ultimately the place I want to get to in this part of the year.
“But yeah, to fundamentally bring the car a bit closer to where I would like it to be, I don’t think we’re going to have any magic answers this year. The cars themselves are very different, the tyres are quite different as well, so that’s not going to change anytime soon.
“But I definitely feel like the last two weekends on a personal level I’ve been performing much better. Baku, I feel like the first stint of the race there was very strong, the middle stint in Malaysia was very strong.
“I feel like on a personal level I’m definitely making progress. But yeah it’s still not as comfortable as I would like.”
Oscar Piastri on Lando Norris delivering poles the car did not necessarily deserve in F1 2026
The 2026 F1 season has delivered some big performance swings. While Mercedes have been a winning and podium contending team all year, the threats to them have varied.
For most of the season it was Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton won at Barcelona-Catalunya and Charles Leclerc at Silverstone. Then McLaren had a spell nearing the end of the European section of 2026 as Lando Norris converted poles into wins at Hungary and Zandvoort. A terribly timed VSC denied him a third one in Madrid. In Malaysia and Singapore, Max Verstappen was on pole and went on to take the wins for Red Bull Racing.
Teams bringing upgrades at different times has certainly helped to shake up the order through the year.
Asked if it was the narrow opeating window of the car and the sensitivity of the tyres that led to the fluctuations in pace, the Australian believed it was more than that.
Speaking about his teammate Lando Norris taking three poles in F1 2026, Oscar Piastri believes the Brit has outshine the car with those considering McLaren’s pace for most of the campaign.
On all three weekends in race trim, the World Champion was significantly ahead of his teammate. It was the same story in qualifying in Hungary and Madrid.
“If I knew [what were the reasons] I’d be a much happier person.
“I think in Baku it wasn’t a huge surprise to see Mercedes so far ahead. They’ve been very, very quick everywhere. I think their straight line speed has always been very strong, and I think the confidence they have on the way into corners is generally something we envy.”
Overachieved
“And putting it bluntly, I think some of the laps that Lando’s done in qualifying to put the car in pole have been better than what the car deserves.
“But I think definitely for us, and I can’t speak for others, but definitely if you can break that barrier of what holds you back, you find a lot of lap time. And that’s kind of the thing, either you’re quite a way off or you’re really fast, there’s not really an in between. That’s been a bit of a struggle this year.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily down to the tyres, I think for us there’s definitely a few things in how we need to drive the car that are maybe compounding that.
“But I think even last year we were having stints or weekends where our pace was unbelievable and we didn’t really know why, and on weekends we struggled more and we didn’t really know why.
“There’s always unknowns, but I don’t think it’s as simple as just the tyres are very sensitive.”
