Oscar Piastri now views Red Bull as “the class of the field” alongside Mercedes, as McLaren loses ground in Formula 1’s 2026 pecking order.
Red Bull brought a significant upgrade to its RB22 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with revamped sidepods, floor, mirrors, halo and diffuser.
This led to the team’s best two results of the season so far, with Max Verstappen hounding George Russell for the win from eighth on the grid in Baku, before the four-time world champion romped to victory in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, McLaren also updated its MCL40 in Azerbaijan, with revised sidepods, engine cover, floor, diffuser, rear suspension and rear wing; however, the papaya cars have struggled to maintain their status of victory contenders after Lando Norris triumphed at the Hungaroring and Zandvoort.
The upgrade worked as expected, team principal Andrea Stella noted, but didn’t bring the hoped-for gain relative to other top teams. Piastri could have finished on the podium in Baku but for a late lock-up; at Sepang, both drivers qualified and finished outside of the top five.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Alex Pantling / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Mercedes have been very strong the whole season obviously, and I think Baku with the long straights there, it wasn’t a big surprise that they were so quick,” Piastri commented.
“Considering how many straights there were in Malaysia, it was surprising they weren’t faster.
“Whatever Red Bull put on their car in Baku clearly was big, because Baku kind of went under the radar for them with where they qualified and Max’s engine problem. If he’d had started at the front in Baku, it would have obviously put George under a lot of pressure [not just] at the end of the race but for the whole race. And then obviously in Malaysia he was definitely the quickest car-and-driver combination.
“I definitely think the others around us are making progress. You know, us and Ferrari kind of seem to to and fro a little bit, but Mercedes have always been the class of the field, and I think Red Bull have kind of joined them in the last couple of weeks.”
McLaren was actually hampered by fuel injection issues over the last two rounds, which the team has a fix for in Singapore – though it may not be enough to match Mercedes and Red Bull.
Asked what the main takeaways from Malaysia were, Norris said: “There were a fair few, both from my side, from us as a team, obviously from what happened in the race, but also just general things from a car point of view and what we need to do a better job in, and how can we get back to the same level as we were in the previous few – Budapest, Zandvoort, Madrid.
Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
“There were some obvious ones, such as the straightline speed and the issues I’ve been having with the car, and obviously more technical ones from how can we unlock more potential from the car to get back to the performance that we had previously. So that’s a tricky one to do, but there’s a lot of stuff and the team have been pretty flat out.”
Pressed on whether the Sepang problems were track-specific, he added: “Well, Baku, we weren’t necessarily too quick either. So, I wouldn’t say just a Malaysia thing. There’s certainly some aspects of Malaysia with the roughness of the tarmac that we think did play a part. So, it’s a good thing for us to see this weekend if some of the performance that we were missing there does come back. And Singapore is a track I’ve enjoyed and we’ve been pretty good here over the last few years.” Norris won at Marina Bay from pole position in 2024.
“So yeah, certainly a little bit of it is track layout, and the last couple of tracks have not been to the same strengths as what we’ve seen in Madrid and some of the other races,” he continued. “But all in all, we’ve still been underperforming to the level we need to and we want to be. We still need to do a better job, no matter what.”
As a sprint weekend, Singapore might actually be a difficult event for McLaren to bounce back, with Piastri describing the MCL40 as a tricky car to swiftly find a decent set-up for.
“With this year’s car it’s never come that easily for either of us, but especially for myself, so definitely going to put things to the test,” the Australian admitted.
