Oscar Piastri finished fifth at the 2026 F1 Dutch GP after starting from P4 on the grid, with the McLaren driver struggling to extract the same pace from the car as teammate Lando Norris throughout the race.
Norris, who started from pole position, battled throughout the race with the likes of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, but by the end of the Grand Prix, he claimed victory and finished the race 11.536s ahead of Antonelli in P2.
Speaking in the print media pen after the Grand Prix, Piastri explained that McLaren had initially planned to start him on the hard tyre (after Max Verstappen brought out a Red Flag after accelerating too early on a damp section of the final banked corner at Zandvoort) and attempted to run it to the finish, but the performance quickly deteriorated.
Piastri’s first pit stop was 5.37 seconds, which also hindered him when he rejoined the circuit as he dropped behind George Russell. Then in the second stint, he had no pace on the hard compound, dropping behind the Ferraris.
“Yeah, I mean we, well the idea was to start on a hard and then go to the end, well we used the other hard as well, but it became clear pretty quickly that the hard wasn’t actually great, I didn’t think, and I think that side of things wasn’t that much of an issue. Obviously the slow first stop was a bit painful and then the pace after that was painful, so yeah, I mean I think there was a lot of different strategies and I don’t think ours was really the issue of our race today.”
Piastri makes early progress before race pace fades
Despite the difficult strategy, Piastri made progress at the start of the 2026 F1 Dutch GP. After finding himself pinched on the inside at Turn 1 during both the Sprint and the first start of the Grand Prix, he was able to go around the outside when the race finally got underway.
“Better than I thought, you know I think Turn 1 here, every time I started fourth, well in the Sprint and the first start, I mean I just got pinched on the inside and you get a bit stuck and starting in fifth and being able to go around the outside actually was a lot nicer because I could pick up one and then, yeah I think George’s power unit selected reverse down the straight to turn seven and I picked up one more, so that was a bonus and yeah, then it unfortunately went pretty downhill from there.”
Hard tyre create another headache
Piastri’s pace became increasingly difficult to manage as the 2026 F1 Dutch GP progressed, particularly on the hard tyre. While he felt the first stint was relatively competitive, the second stint quickly fell away.
“Pace, I mean there’s not really one clear issue, I think the first stint things felt reasonable, there was a bit of a tough period in the middle but by the end of the stint it felt pretty good and then yeah the second stint on the hards was okay for the first five laps and then a mess and I’m not really sure what the end was like, so yeah obviously once the Ferraris got passed as well, it kind of went through all the marbles and picked up a load of crap on my tyres too, but yeah unfortunately it’s not the first race where the pace just hasn’t been there, so we need to understand why.”
Slow corners remain a weakness for McLaren
The McLaren driver pointed to the slow corners as one of the car’s weaker areas, although he stressed that the MCL 40’s overall performance remained strong enough to win, as Norris demonstrated.
“Yes, I mean it’s probably the weakest point but I don’t think it’s that bad, I mean Lando’s just won the race by quite a lot, so I think the car is in a good place, it’s been quick the last two weekends, I think these two tracks suit the car well, it’s just for whatever reason I’ve not been able to get the pace out of it.”
With the championship battle continuing into the second half of the season, Piastri acknowledged that McLaren’s competitiveness at Zandvoort may not immediately translate to every circuit.
“Yes, I mean it’s difficult to know because these two circuits are quite similar in characteristics, very short straights, a lot of corners and generally quite long corners. So Monza is going to be a completely different beast for a number of reasons, but yeah we’ll have to wait and see if this pace translates to other circuits.”
Piastri searching for answers behind Norris pace gap
Piastri was also asked whether there was anything within the setup or his driving style that could explain the significant difference in race pace between himself and Norris.
“In the set-up, not really, I mean I think in the driving style there clearly must be something, I think in qualifying this weekend I felt much more comfortable and through Q1 and Q2, okay Q3 I didn’t quite maximise it but I was there in the fight and in the race the story just wasn’t the same at all, so yeah I think that’s the biggest thing to understand.”
The Australian believes the rear of the McLaren has been particularly difficult to manage during races, leaving him searching for a way to unlock the performance that Norris has been able to extract.
“I mean I think in the races just the rear of the car is very tricky to drive and even in qualifying the last few weekends it’s been difficult and this weekend in qualifying that was much nicer and I felt much more confident and I think at certain points in the race today I felt a lot better with that but just the pace just hasn’t been there. Again it’s not the first race this year that that’s been the case, some have been good, some have been very strong but there’s been too many now that have been really a long way off.”
Tyre degradation compounds Piastri’s struggles
Tyre degradation was also a major factor in Piastri’s difficult second stint, with the hard compound falling away after only a handful of laps.
“I think degradation mainly, like the first set of parts felt okay and then the second set was good for about five laps and then I completely ran out of front tyres so it’s not necessarily one thing that’s going wrong but yeah the stint on that tyre was very, very tricky.”
