Zak Brown encouraged as Oscar Piastri shows growing confidence in McLaren MCL40

Brown sees a driver coming back

McLaren CEO Zak Brown believes Australian driver Oscar Piastri is returning to the form that made him a title contender, saying he is encouraged by the 25-year-old's growing confidence behind the wheel of the MCL40. Speaking in Friday's press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix, Brown was asked whether Piastri had returned to the driver he knew and replied: "I think he is." He added that the new generation of cars has "kind of mixed up the field a little bit" because they are so complex and some drivers adapted faster than others, but said: "He's feeling more confident and on top of things. I like where both our drivers are now." ³²

Formula1.com's report was the primary account of Brown's press-conference remarks, and they were subsequently carried by international outlets including grandprix247.com, Hungary's F1VILÁG and Russia's Sport-Express. Sport-Express, crediting Formula1.com, framed the remarks carefully: Brown noted Piastri's progress but did not declare his problems fully solved, and stressed that the CEO's read on Piastri's confidence is an evaluation by a team leader rather than the result of any technical measurement. ³¹²⁴

Piastri's 2026 has been challenging. He is coming off a season in which he finished third in the Drivers' Championship after being in contention for the title, and grandprix247.com reports he could not even start the season opener in Melbourne, crashing on the reconnaissance lap to the grid with an unexpected power surge blamed at the time. Formula1.com notes he has secured two podium finishes this year but has not consistently extracted performance from the new generation of cars. ³¹

Brown's satisfaction was wide of the gap still visible inside the team. Lando Norris, whom grandprix247.com identifies as the reigning Formula 1 champion, has taken two Grand Prix victories this season and has held the qualifying advantage at 11 of the 17 rounds held so far, according to Formula1.com. Grandprix247.com cites the same qualifying record, describing it as 17 to 11 in Norris's favour, and says Norris's wins came in the Hungarian and Dutch Grands Prix. ³¹

Adapting to the MCL40

Formula1.com reports that Piastri's difficulties this season have largely centred on adapting his natural driving style to the demands of the MCL40, with McLaren team principal Andrea Stella previously explaining that the Australian has been unable to drive through "pure instinct" in certain conditions. Ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Piastri acknowledged the search for a solution had been far from straightforward: "A lot of the things that have worked for me previously don't really seem to work this year, so it's about trying to find different things that do work." He added that progress was being made but "it's not as simple as you find one direction and that just works for you all the time. You need to constantly adapt and change things." ³¹²

There have been uneven results along the way. As reported by Formula1.com, Piastri finished sixth at the Bahrain Grand Prix held in Malaysia after a difficult afternoon in Sepang, where a decision to start on medium tyres in wet conditions forced an early pit stop. Despite that result, the nine-time race winner was encouraged by his own performance while admitting McLaren still had work to do to close the gap to its rivals. ³²

An eventful Singapore weekend

Piastri's fifth place in Singapore came at the end of an eventful weekend. Formula1.com reports that the Australian retired from Saturday's Sprint following a collision with teammate Norris on the final lap, and that a slow puncture on Sunday forced an unscheduled pit stop in the Grand Prix. He salvaged P5 by overtaking Lewis Hamilton on the final lap. ³²

Reflecting on the result, Piastri told Formula1.com: "It felt pretty reasonable I would say. I think we just didn't quite have enough pace." He said the team could not go with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, that Kimi Antonelli was also a little quicker, and that "there wasn't really too much we could do other than where we ended up." ³

Brown, per Formula1.com, remained hopeful McLaren could build on recent progress while acknowledging an increasingly competitive field: "The target is to come into every weekend with the chance to win. We feel more on top of things than we have for the past couple of races, and we won the last couple of races prior to that. It shows how competitive the sport is... but that's easier said than done." ³

Contract security and the swap chatter

Brown's upbeat assessment sits against recurring speculation about Piastri's future. In May, Fox Sports' Michael Lamonato examined paddock rumours of a potential Piastri-Verstappen swap between McLaren and Red Bull Racing and concluded they did not stack up, noting that McLaren had dismissed the idea outright. Fox Sports quotes Brown telling Sky Sports earlier: "I couldn't be happier with our driver line-up... zero intention of changing it." ⁵

Fox Sports also details the contractual facts that underpin that position: Piastri signed a long-term contract only last year keeping him at McLaren until at least the end of 2028, while Norris is on a similarly long-term deal running until at least the end of 2027. The publication's own analysis adds that with McLaren the two-time defending constructors' champion and Piastri of championship calibre, there is no compelling reason for the Australian to leave. No change to Piastri's position at the team has been announced. ⁵⁴