Piastri says he is back 'in the ballpark' as McLaren adapts to the 2026 car

Piastri acknowledges progress but a level far below his aspiration

Oscar Piastri says he is beginning to feel comfortable again in the McLaren after months of difficulty adapting to Formula 1's 2026 generation of cars. Asked at the United States Grand Prix press conference about McLaren CEO Zak Brown's comment that he was 'back to the driver I know', the Australian replied that the driver in question was 'certainly hard to find for a while' but that the recent triple header was 'definitely more back to where I wanted to be'. He stressed he was 'not still at the level I aspire to be at, but back in the ballpark that I should be in', according to the official FIA press conference transcript. ²¹

Formula1.com reported the same commentary under the heading of a 'clear sign of progress' after a 'challenging' year, noting the 25-year-old had started the season with DNS results at his home race in Australia and Round 2 in China before returning to the podium in Japan and Miami. He has not made the rostrum since, having failed to find consistent performance from the new car while team-mate Lando Norris converted the MCL40's strengths into victories. Nine.com.au similarly described Piastri as 'slowly becoming comfortable' in the car while conceding the strengths behind last year's title bid are now his biggest weakness. ¹³

The driving-style mismatch that shaped the season

The core of the problem, in Piastri's own description to reporters, is that the things which worked for him last year 'are kind of the things that are my downfall on a lot of weekends this year'. The FIA transcript records him saying that when a driver cannot rely on his usual tools, the adaptation carries a mental challenge as well as a technical one, and that there is no quick fix. He added that 'not a lot' has changed on the car, with the work focused on how he adapts himself to it. ²³

RacingNews365 reported in September that the 2026 cars, with sharply reduced downforce compared with 2025, demand constant micro-corrections that clash with Piastri's characteristically smooth style, and quoted him explaining how easy it is to 'spiral in either direction' when comfort in the car dictates whether driving becomes subconscious or effortful. He told RacingNews365 the issue was 'not as simple as just low grip', and that McLaren had to find solutions quicker through a weekend. ⁵

Formula1.com has also reported that McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella attributed the struggles to a technical issue, saying Piastri had been unable to drive through 'pure instinct' in certain conditions, and that after Piastri's eighth place at the Spanish Grand Prix Stella committed to shifting more engineering resources toward helping the Australian. ⁷

Setbacks and signs of recovery through the autumn rounds

The recent record points to a gradual upswing. Formula1.com noted that after an error in Baku dropped him from the top three to P13, Piastri finished sixth in Malaysia and fifth in Singapore. The Singapore weekend was eventful: he retired from Saturday's Sprint after a collision with team-mate Norris on the final lap, and a slow puncture forced an unscheduled stop on Sunday before he overtook Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to take P5, telling formula1.com that McLaren 'just didn't quite have enough pace' to stay with Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli. ¹⁶

Fox Sports' Michael Lamonato reported that in Malaysia Piastri had made the strategic call to switch from slicks to intermediates at the wet start and outpaced Norris, finishing sixth ahead of his team-mate in ninth on a low-grip Sepang surface that has historically troubled him. Piastri told reporters at the Singapore Grand Prix that repeated evidence of driving differently had made the required style 'become more natural', while cautioning that the fundamental fix would probably wait until 2027, when the engine formula is tweaked and Pirelli adjusts its tyre compounds: 'I don't think we're going to have any magic answers this year.' ⁴

That caution sits alongside an acknowledgment from within the team that rivals have moved forward. Fox Sports quoted McLaren boss Andrea Stella saying after Malaysia, where the team had expected to perform strongly, that 'potentially some competitors have developed their car with bigger steps than we did', with the outlet's data placing McLaren fourth among the frontrunners on average gap to the fastest team at +0.733 seconds behind Mercedes. ⁴

A cautious outlook for the Circuit of The Americas

Asked whether the COTA layout might suit the MCL40 better than Singapore, Piastri told the FIA press conference it was 'difficult to say': high-speed corners have been McLaren's strength in 2026 and low-speed corners the weakness, and Austin combines both, including very long low-speed corners, so 'it will challenge everything'. He confirmed the car carries 'a few new bits' for the weekend, while conceding the team is 'lacking a bit of performance compared to the teams around us in general'. ²¹

The Singapore incident also drew a question at the Austin press conference about whether the collision with Norris was symptomatic of McLaren's frustrating position. Piastri said he had been happy with how the team, Zak Brown and Andrea Stella, had handled the matter, that there were no racing repercussions, and that 'we're ready to go racing', per the official FIA transcript. ²

Where the championship standings stand

Nine.com.au reported that Piastri sits seventh in the 2026 drivers' standings on 138 points, 63 behind sixth-placed Norris, who has five podiums including two victories. Twelve months earlier Piastri had led the championship on 336 points at this stage of the season. Formula1.com's figures match the points totals, listing Piastri on 138 and Norris on 201, with Piastri having secured two podiums this year and Norris outqualifying him at 11 of the 17 rounds so far. These are season-to-date figures reported ahead of the United States Grand Prix, not results of the race itself. ³¹⁶

Brown remained publicly optimistic about the team's trajectory, telling formula1.com at the Singapore Grand Prix that he liked what he was seeing from both drivers and that the target was to arrive at every weekend 'with the chance to win', while acknowledging how quickly competitiveness among the top four teams was moving around. Piastri, for his part, framed his progress in modest terms: 'this is not a level I want to be trying to get to… but it's a clear sign of progress, which is what I'm after.' ⁶²