Oscar Piastri has been “too clean” for 2026 F1 cars

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has attributed Oscar Piastri’s current struggles to a driving style that’s incompatible with Formula 1’s new-for-2026 machinery.

It may seem remote, but just seventh months ago, Piastri was a contender for the world title in the Abu Dhabi finale. But F1 has since switched to smaller, nimbler cars with energy management now a key factor to achieve performance – and the McLaren driver lies just sixth in the standings, with 82 points to team-mate Lando Norris’ 97.

The contrast is especially stark in qualifying, where Piastri has been dominated 9-1 by Norris since the April break, with the average gap between them 0.099s. The Australian has qualified seventh in all qualifying sessions since Canada but one – he was eighth in the main qualifying at Silverstone.

“I think the drivers are talking about this generation of cars requiring a certain driving style,” Stella told Sky Sport Germany. “Basically, if you just try to drive too clean, the lap time doesn't come. You have to attack the car, you have to accept that the car slides, you have to be extremely active.

“And this is a driving style that comes more normal to Lando than Oscar. We are working with Oscar to make sure that his natural application in terms of driving input takes these characteristics into account. We have seen this across some other team-mates, like Antonelli and Russell, sometimes Hamilton and Leclerc.

“So, I think we will figure this out and Oscar will be able to express the full extent of his talent.”

Piastri qualified seventh for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix after dipping wheels in the gravel at Stavelot on his opening Q3 run, with Norris up to third on the grid. The Melburnian ended up 0.215s down on the sister car and wasn’t helped by a hydraulics issue that curtailed his Friday running.

“I think the struggles I've had today have not been related to that,” he clarified. “It's just been a very difficult car to drive and very, very tough. If you can balance it on the edge, then the lap time seems to be there, but balancing it on the edge is pretty tough.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren (Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images)

Asked what exactly is giving up on him when he’s on the edge, Piastri explained: “A bit of everything, depending on where exactly you put it and which way the wind is, what kind of corner you're in. It's not one kind of clear problem, which I think when you've got struggles with a bit of everything, it's probably that that's just what the car is capable of and extracting any more out of it is... You just need more downforce really.

“But the rear of the car has definitely been a challenge the last couple of weekends in particular. Obviously today it's been quite windy, Silverstone was quite windy, so I don't know if that's added to the challenge, but it's definitely not been easy.”

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording