Oscar Piastri says “progress isn’t linear” as he attempts to overcome the same adaptation problems that have prevented George Russell from challenging for the championship.
Piastri and Russell have both been left behind by their teammates this season, the first under new regulations, in marked swings of fortune compared to last season.
Whereas Piastri led the championship for most of last season before falling just 13 points short of Lando Norris, so far this year he trails his title-winning teammate by 66 points and has been beaten in qualifying nine times from the previous 11 weekends, with Norris winning two grands prix to Piastri’s none.
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Russell was the unquestioned number one at Mercedes last season but has been stunned by Andrea Kimi Antonelli in just his second Formula 1 campaign. At 81 points adrift, the Englishman is only a mathematical chance of beating his teammate to the title, and he could be dispatched as soon as the Singapore Grand Prix just over a fortnight from now.
The lower-downforce cars and complex hybrid engines — which have fundamentally changed the driving challenge by incentivising energy management — are an obvious culprit for two drivers who share a similar driving style, including similar weaknesses in low-grip conditions.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella said after the previous race in Spain that the combination of rule changes and Piastri’s innate driving traits had left the Australian unable to work in his natural way and that he was instead “driving and thinking”.
“When you drive and think, things get slowed down … in terms of deciding what to do, and ultimately you are slower in terms of lap times,” he said.
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Speaking ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Piastri said the 2026 car wasn’t responding to many of the driving strategies he’s developed throughout his racing career.
“Obviously the cars this year — the power units to one side — are quite different to what we’ve had previously,” he said. “A lot of the things that have worked for me previously don’t really seem to work this year.
“It’s about trying to find different things that do work. I feel like I’m making some progress on that, 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.
“That is part of what makes finding a solution difficult, because the solution is always a little bit different every time.
“We’re trying our best, and I think we are making progress, but we’re certainly not in the place we want to be where we feel like we’re on top of this.”
Oscar Piastri vs Lando Norris
Qualifying head to head: Norris leads 9-5
Qualifying differential: Noris ahead 1.1 places
Qualifying time differential: Norris faster by 0.078s
Race head to head: Norris leads 6-3
Race differential: Norris ahead 1.4 places
Race time differential: Norris ahead by 17.8s
Points: Norris leads 186-20 (61-39 per cent)
Russell leant Piastri a sympathetic ear, feeling both the Australian and himself were among a group of drivers who have been disadvantaged by the 2026 regulations.
“I think Oscar and I have been dealing with similar sorts of struggles this year,” he said. “The car is very different, the tyres are different — power unit aside.
“What’s probably worked so well for the two of us and maybe a couple of other drivers on the grid this year isn’t working as well.”
The Englishman added that it was no surprise to see Antonelli and, more recently, Norris emerge as the season’s top performers.
“I think [Antonelli’s] driving style is very similar to what he had last year, and with just how things have fallen this year, it’s kind of the perfect driving style for these cars,” he said.
“There are definitely trends. You look at Brazil last year: Kimi had a really strong race and Lando won, and they are two drivers who are always very strong on the low-grip tracks, and they are two drivers who are arguably the best-performing drivers of this season.
“Let’s see next year if it changes or not, but certainly his natural driving style suits very well for this regulation.”
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Norris earlier this year derided suggestions that some drivers were at a disadvantage because of their natural driving styles, declaring that “if you’re not ready to adapt to a different car, then you’re not at a good enough level”.
“It’s our job; it’s what we’ve got paid millions to do,” he said. “It’s to drive any car you get given, whether it’s a good one, a bad one, an easy one or a hard one. You have to do it.”
Piastri, who won three titles in consecutive years in Formula Renault 3.5, Formula 3 and Formula 2, said he was confident that he could overcome his mismatch with the car, but he admitted it would take time.
“In some ways every F1 car I’ve driven is a bit different as well,” he said. “Obviously the regulations for the first three years of my career were the same, but the three cars we had across those three years had some big differences, even in the same regs, and the tyres changed a bit in certain years.
“I’m confident that we’re going to make progress.
“It’s very difficult to find a good time because obviously you’re trying to balance trying to learn, trying stuff that might not necessarily be the fastest way around the track, with trying to score points and get good results. It’s always a tricky balancing act like that.
“But I’ve got confidence that I can find a way — and we are finding a way. It’s just that some weekends it’s going to look a bit better than others.”
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Russell emphasised that the modern F1 schedule was not conducive to making significant driving adjustments given the ban on in-season testing and the shrinking number of practice sessions available to full-time drivers through the increased number of sprint weekends and the requirement to make way for rookies at certain rounds.
“I think the big challenge in Formula 1 is we can’t practise and we cannot test,” he said. “I use the golf analogy: if you want to change your golf swing, you go to the driving range and you practise, practise, practise until your next tournament.
“We have to practise at the event. We have to practise in qualifying. We have to practics in the race because it’s our only opportunity.
“The progression of making these changes takes longer than any other sport because we’re just not allowed to practise. That is the challenge.
“I’ve got no doubt we can achieve it, because we’ve both been racing for a long time. We’re two of the few drivers who have won F4, F3 and F2, which are all different race cars made by different manufacturers and different tyres on different racetracks.
“I’ve got no doubt in my ability. I’m sure Oscar has no doubt in his ability. But right now we’re racing against the very best in the world, and it just takes a little bit of time.”
George Russell vs Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Qualifying head to head: Antonelli leads 8-6
Qualifying differential: Antonelli ahead 0.8 places
Qualifying time differential: Antonelli faster by 0.124s
Race head to head: Antonelli leads 8-3
Race differential: Antonelli ahead 1.1 places
Race time differential: Antonelli ahead by 15.6s
Points: Antonelli leads 292-211 (58-41 per cent)
McLaren boss Stella has talked about the team working with Piastri in much the same way it worked to cure Norris’s unease in the car early last year, when the Briton felt he couldn’t get the most from his machinery due to a lack of feedback from the front axle.
Though new components played a role, Norris reprogrammed himself to exploit the car where he could, and he ended the campaign in devastating fashion to claim the championship.
Piastri said he felt backed by the team to make the same progress, which he felt was coming.
“We’re throwing everything we can at trying to improve, which has been good,” he said. “Again, there are only so many things you can do without just jumping in the car and trying stuff, but with the limited time we have, you need to have a good idea or good set of ideas that you want to action. You can’t just try random stuff.
“I feel like it’s been a very good team response in trying to improve things as quickly as we can. I feel like I’m being well supported.
“The progress isn’t linear. You’re always going to find some things that work, go down some paths that don’t work, and we’re still very much in that phase at the moment.
“I feel like we’re making progress and at least exploring different things, and some are working, some aren’t. But we’re not standing still, which is the most important thing.”
Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2026 schedule (AEST)
Thursday: FP1 at 6:30pm, FP2 at 10pm.
Friday: FP3 at 6:30pm, qualifying at 10pm.
Saturday: Race at 9pm.