Oscar Piastri is scratching his head as to why he’s struggled to maximise the McLaren Formula 1 package compared to team-mate Lando Norris.
The reigning world champion has won the last two grands prix – Budapest and Zandvoort – from pole thanks to a heavily-upgraded MCL40, while Piastri has suffered a DNF and finished sixth.
It has left Norris fourth in the standings and 55 points ahead of seventh-placed Piastri, who also trails his team-mate 13-4 in their qualifying head-to-head (sprint races included) this year.
So the Australian has certainly been second best and he is without a podium since Miami in May, while his last win came at Zandvoort last August – when he looked like a champion-in-waiting.
“Unfortunately it’s not the first race where the pace just hasn’t been there,” said Piastri on Sunday. “Lando has 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.”
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
But one shouldn’t be too surprised by Piastri’s struggles in 2026, because he is now having to contend with a lower-grip car due to downforce levels reducing under the new rules.
It is in low-grip conditions where the 25-year-old notoriously struggles, as Piastri’s title bid collapsed towards the end of last season at tracks like Baku, Singapore and Mexico City.
So he’s had to adapt more than most and although there’s still been glimpses of his potential, like topping SQ2 and Q1 at Zandvoort, others have found that edge for when it matters.
“In the driving style, there clearly must be something,” said Piastri, when asked where he lacks compared to Norris this season.
“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.”
The Australian qualified fourth, 0.142s off Norris and 0.040s and 0.009s behind Mercedes duo George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, respectively.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
“In the race, the story just wasn’t the same at all,” added Piastri. “So, yeah, I think that’s the biggest difference.”
Sunday’s race saw Piastri overtake Russell at Turn 7 for third on lap three before dropping back to fourth on lap 19 due to a slow 5.4s pitstop.
From then on Piastri just struggled for pace as Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton also overtook him and he eventually finished 32 seconds behind Norris.
When McLaren boss Andrea Stella was asked to explain Piastri’s woes, the Italian said: “I don’t think it has anything to do with any psychological kind of opportunity – this is purely technical.
“This weekend actually we saw Oscar expressing competitive lap times and I think in the race there were two factors that affected Oscar.
“One was the fact, and this is a team responsibility, that when we pitted to cover Russell, actually we lost the position to Russell because of a slow pitstop and this is up to the team.
Oscar Piastri and Andrea Stella in Hungary
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“Then this second stint on hard tyres, we were not able to switch these tyres on. They stayed permanently in a regime of very, very low grip, which we didn’t see in the first stint.
“So there’s a couple of things that we need to work on. But I would also add to this that we are in a phase of Formula 1 in which we have at least three teams that are within one tenth of a second.
“As soon as things are not optimised, then you may have a very significant positional loss. So if you’re not optimised, now you are P6.
“It’s very brutal from this point of view, so I think we just have to keep working with Oscar on all the opportunities and I’m happy with the improvements that I’ve seen during this weekend.”
Additional reporting by Filip Cleeren and Ronald Vording
