McLaren driver Oscar Piastri suffered a surprisingly early elimination during qualifying for the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP, qualifying down in P13. He starts 12th thanks to Liam Lawson’s DSQ.
After showing promising pace and comfortable balance throughout FP3 on Saturday and the opening stages of qualifying, Piastri’s performance dropped unexpectedly in Q2.
Speaking in the print media pen following the qualifying session, the Australian driver broke down his sudden loss of grip, unexpected changes in balance and his plans for recovery on race day.
Sudden loss of grip and unexplained balance shifts
Reflecting on his qualifying session, Piastri delivered a direct assessment of his Q2 elimination, admitting that the outcome went pretty badly. He explained that up until the second phase of qualifying his balance showed no sign of difference.
However, during his crucial final runs in Q2, the car suffered a severe unexplainable drop in overall grip levels which compromised his lap time. He ended 0.9s slower than teammate Lando Norris.
Piastri pointed out a complete contrast in car behavior, noting that the balance he experienced at the start of qualifying felt completely opposite to how the car handled on his final run at the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP.
He clarified that while the team made minor adjustments between runs, those tiny changes could not explain such a drastic shift in performance.
With no obvious mechanical cause immediately apparent, Piastri emphasised that the team now faces urgent questions to find out what went wrong.
“Pretty bad.
“Yeah, just that… I just had no grip in Q2 for some reason. I don’t really know what happened and what changed. Until that point things were pretty comfortable, to be honest, felt good. Yeah, just a bit strange.
“The balance I had at the start of qualifying was completely the opposite to what I had in the last run of Q2. So I don’t understand what happened. We made a couple of very small tweaks, but nothing that would explain why it was so different. So yeah, it’s a question to be answered.”
Piastri looking ahead to the race at the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP
Turning his focus towards the race, Piastri recognised that his primary opportunity to recover positions lies in a strong launch off the starting line.
While the team is not able to make any major set-up changes overnight due to the regulations, Piastri confirmed that no specific modifications spring to mind that could explain the balance issues during Qualifying.
The McLaren driver acknowledged that the team must run the car essentially as it is now, focusing their efforts instead on the race start and execution.
“Pretty much, yeah. We’ll see what we can do off the line and hopefully make up some spots.”
“No, not that I can think of any. Obviously, we can’t change much at all. So, nothing that springs to mind.”
