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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOscar Piastri is looking forward to finally getting some race laps in at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOscar Piastri is looking forward to finally getting some race laps in at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The McLaren driver arrives in Japan yet to complete a single grand prix lap this year, after crashing out on the reconnaissance lap in Australia<\/a> before an electrical issue prevented him from starting in China<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking to Speedcafe and other media at Suzuka on Thursday, Piastri confirmed the Shanghai failure had been traced to a power unit problem on the Mercedes High Performance Powertrains side.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, we found what went wrong. It was an electrical problem on the HPP side of the power unit,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously a shame, but I think it was more of a joint effort into understanding the problem and making sure it doesn\u2019t happen again. So yeah, we know what went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n The double non-start has left Piastri on the back foot early in the season, but the 24-year-old said his focus remained firmly on what lies ahead rather than the frustrations of the opening rounds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not been the most ideal start, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Refresh your internet. \u201cI think for myself, all you can do is look at what is coming in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, certainly in China, there\u2019s no point dwelling on it. It wasn\u2019t anything I could do.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a race here this weekend that we\u2019re going to try and do better in. That\u2019s all you can do really.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond the reliability setbacks, Piastri acknowledged McLaren also faces a broader performance deficit relative to its rivals.<\/p>\n \u201cI think clearly also from a competitive standpoint, we\u2019re not as fast as we want to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think we\u2019ve got plenty to focus on apart from just a bad couple of races, or non-races. So that\u2019s what we\u2019re putting our energy into.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of the things that I can control so far, like qualifying, I think it\u2019s gone well considering where we stand.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s just so many things to try and understand with these cars and with these power units and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to put our energy into and I feel like I\u2019ve got a good grasp of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Piastri suggested the deficit was not isolated to a single weakness, but rather a combination of factors across the car and power unit package.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like we have just one problem that we need to fix or anything like that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit in a few different areas and that adds up pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n With the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds cancelled, teams now face an extended break before Formula 1 resumes in Miami in May \u2014 something Piastri believes could prove beneficial despite McLaren\u2019s lack of race mileage.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, we\u2019re down on laps and data to look at at the moment unfortunately, which is a bit of a shame,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think even now, we\u2019ve got some good ideas on how we want to improve going forward on a lot of topics \u2014 where we want to go with the car, where we need to improve with our work with HPP.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think it\u2019s just going to give everybody a bit more time to understand and hopefully we can come out of that break a bit faster than we\u2019re going into it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Australian added that McLaren\u2019s current position was not entirely unexpected given the scale of the 2026 regulation overhaul, even if the extent of the reset had taken teams by surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, not really frustration. We knew it was going to be a massive reset of everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe not quite as big as it has been. I don\u2019t think we thought it would be a pretty fundamental overhaul of what driving a race car looks like.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think we knew that this was a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the difficult start, Piastri insisted the situation was far from irrecoverable.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still towards the front. It\u2019s certainly not a complete disaster,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we where we want to be? No. But I think we\u2019re understanding all the time how we can improve across so many areas.<\/p>\n \u201cBut you know, we went into this year knowing that it would probably look pretty different.<\/p>\n \u201cWould I have loved to have stayed in last year\u2019s car at this point? Yes, probably.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n Piastri also admitted uncertainty over how the new-generation cars will handle Suzuka\u2019s high-speed layout, with recent changes to energy harvesting adding another variable heading into the weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cI certainly hope that it\u2019s still the same challenge that it has been in the past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure how optimistic I am in some of the corners unfortunately based off the sim running we\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n \u201cBut again, we\u2019ve changed the harvest and maybe it\u2019ll fix things a bit. So yeah, we\u2019ll see when we get to it.\u201d<\/p>\n 2026 F1 Japanese Grand Prix \u2013 Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/294238.gif\")
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