![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Piastri got within 13 points of last year\u2019s world championship, but seven rounds into a season that feels like it\u2019s yet to really get going for him, Spain seemed to sum up his year to date.<\/p>\n
Or so it seemed to the commentariat. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going too well for him as of late,\u201d 2016 champion Nico Rosberg claimed to British broadcaster Sky Sports. \u201cHis market value has taken a bit of a plunge in the last weeks and months.<\/p>\n
\u201cA bit unexpected, because last year he was really on a par with Lando all the time, and this year Lando has jumped ahead somewhat with these new regulations, new cars, [and] Oscar is not feeling too comfortable yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit strange, and he really needs to work on that now, because he\u2019s falling down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 champion, readily agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw the trend last year. Halfway through the season he was the talk of the paddock, like \u2018It\u2019s great they signed him, because he showed it in Formula 2 \u2014 amazing,\u2019 and then he collapsed, and his form went down, and he hasn\u2019t recovered. It\u2019s really odd,\u201d he contended.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody\u2019s talking about him anymore, and that\u2019s in the space of, what, six months, even less. It\u2019s very odd.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut like we often say, you\u2019re only as good as your last race. That\u2019s what\u2019s tough with sports \u2014 unless you\u2019re Lewis [Hamilton] and you\u2019ve won so many championships and so on, then okay, there\u2019s something you can lean on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut otherwise, two, three bad races, and okay, [people] move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a stunning both-barrels assault on a driver that led more grands prix than any other last season.<\/p>\n
But it isn\u2019t borne out by the data.<\/p>\n
‘This one is something else’ | 01:29<\/p>\n
\u2018THIS YEAR LANDO HAS JUMPED AHEAD\u2019<\/p>\n
Piastri impressed last season with how readily he took on the more experienced Norris in a title-contending McLaren. He started as the underdog to the established Briton, but he took the title lead after five rounds \u2014 needing to wait only because of his low-scoring result in the Australia season opener \u2014 and led the series for 15 weekends before a late wobble in the Americas left him vulnerable to his teammate.<\/p>\n
The title assault nonetheless confirmed a significant step between his second and third campaigns, with the season statistics demonstrated there was almost nothing to separate the two drivers after 24 rounds of title rivalry.<\/p>\n
The below data includes only grand prix results, with sprints excluded.<\/p>\n
Piastri vs Norris, 2025<\/p>\n
Qualifying head to head: Norris led 13-11<\/p>\n
Qualifying differential: Norris ahead by 0.1 places<\/p>\n
Time differential: Norris faster by 0.067 seconds<\/p>\n
Race head to head: Norris led 12-9<\/p>\n
Race differential: Norris ahead by 0.1 places<\/p>\n
Points: Norris led 423-410 (50.8-49.2 per cent)<\/p>\n
Almost every one of these metrics ranked Piastri and Norris as the most closely matched teammates in the sport.<\/p>\n
Though there was always a risk that McLaren wouldn\u2019t kick on this year given the change in regulations, expectations were that Norris and Piastri would continue their tight rivalry regardless of the machinery.<\/p>\n
Despite the vibe given voice by Rosberg and Villeneuve, that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n
Piastri vs Norris, 2026 so far<\/p>\n
Qualifying head to head: Piastri leads 4-3<\/p>\n
Qualifying differential: Norris ahead by 0.3 places<\/p>\n
Time differential: Piastri faster by 0.040 seconds<\/p>\n
Race head to head: Norris leads 2-1<\/p>\n
Race differential: equal<\/p>\n
Points: Norris ahead 73-68 (51.8-48.2 per cent)<\/p>\n
There\u2019s so little to separate them in qualifying that Piastri leads the head-to-head count with a slightly faster average times despite Norris starting slightly further up the grid.<\/p>\n
Though it\u2019s hard to draw many conclusions from the only three grands prix both have finished, a 2-1 record with nothing to split them on average finishing position is hardly a \u201ccollapse\u201d.<\/p>\n
Again, almost all these metrics rank Norris and Piastri as the most closely matched drivers in the sport.<\/p>\n
Drought Broken! Lewis’ 1st Ferrari win | 02:51<\/p>\n
\u2018HIS FORM WENT DOWN, AND HE HASN\u2019T RECOVERED\u2019<\/p>\n
Villeneuve\u2019s claim that Piastri has failed to recover since coming off the boil around the Americas rounds late last year is at best exaggerated.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s undeniable that the Australian\u2019s form fell off a cliff around three-quarters of the way through last season, starting with the United States Grand Prix. He had, of course, already suffered his calamitous Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend by then \u2014 something he put down to having not processed the team orders controversy from the preceding race in Italy \u2014 but he had rebounded in Singapore, outqualifying Norris and finishing behind his teammate only after being contentiously barged out of the way on the first lap.<\/p>\n
Austin, though, kicked off four rounds of genuine struggle from Piastri, whose weakness on low-grip surfaces \u2014 whether because of high temperatures or smooth tracks or high-altitude, low-downforce conditions \u2014 was painfully exposed just as Norris found some punishing form.<\/p>\n
In the space of three rounds Piastri saw a 22-point lead transformed into a 24-point deficit.<\/p>\n
But then he rebounded spectacularly in Qatar, where he won the sprint but was prevented from dominating the grand prix from pole thanks to a team strategic blunder.<\/p>\n
His upturn continued in Abu Dhabi, where he was only 0.029 seconds slower than Norris \u2014 less than his season-average deficit \u2014 and finished ahead of his teammate in the title decider.<\/p>\n
Poor finishing records for both cars this year has made Piastri\u2019s form relative to Norris harder to gauge, but he looked on track to win the Japanese Grand Prix \u2014 his first start of the season \u2014 in forceful fashion before the safety car.<\/p>\n
He finished on the podium again in Miami the following weekend.<\/p>\n
Consider Norris and Piastri\u2019s season-best results in grands prix this year.<\/p>\n
Headline stats, 2026 so far<\/p>\n
Best qualifying: Piastri: P3 (Japan); Norris P3 (Canada)<\/p>\n
Piastri average qualifying advantage: 0.143 seconds<\/p>\n
Norris average qualifying advantage: 0.097 seconds<\/p>\n
Best race: Piastri: P2 (Japan); Norris: P2 (Miami)<\/p>\n
Piastri average race advantage: 9.757 seconds<\/p>\n
Norris average race advantage: 29.385 seconds<\/p>\n
The only real discrepancy above is Norris\u2019s average race advantage \u2014 how much he\u2019s finishing ahead of Piastri when both drivers see the flag.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only here, in this singe metric, that there\u2019s an interesting story to tell.<\/p>\n
Piastri and Norris have finished only three grands prix together, but Norris has been by far the faster driver in two of those.<\/p>\n
Though both finished on the podium in Miami, Piastri in third was 23.8 seconds behind Norris in second.<\/p>\n
In Barcelona, Norris finished third and Piastri fifth, but the gap between them was an even larger 34.9 seconds.<\/p>\n
Only once last year \u2014 in Mexico City \u2014 did the McLaren drivers finish with a bigger gap between them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying a lot of different things and running into a lot of different problems, so I think just struggling a lot with grip, tyre life,\u201d Piastri said of his Barcelona result, per Racer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have any answers at the moment; I\u2019m sure there will be some answers later, but I\u2019m surprised to struggle so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a few laps here and there that felt a little bit better, but that normally came at a price a few laps later. So, it\u2019s just not an easy afternoon at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I can hope is that we learn why it was so difficult. The points we gained were still reasonable, but we obviously wanted the performance to be a lot stronger than it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marquez reigns after Bezzecchi drama | 17:52<\/p>\n
WHAT\u2019S BEHIND THOSE BIG DEFICITS?<\/p>\n
Part of Piastri\u2019s story this year is McLaren stepping back from championship contention.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just that the car is less competitive; it\u2019s what a less competitive car means in the context of this year\u2019s regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always lacking that last tenth or two or, in my case [in Barcelona], a lot more than that,\u201d Piastri said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re trying to chase that last little bit, things are a bit uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to put the car in a place it doesn\u2019t always like to be, and that comes with some challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a different proposition to last season, when the McLaren was easy to operate at almost every track while exhibiting very few and very specific weaknesses.<\/p>\n
It may not be a coincidence too that Piastri is finding things \u201ca bit uncomfortable\u201d this year in a relative sense when the 2026 car is fundamentally lower in downforce and therefore grip than the previous generation of machines.<\/p>\n
Piastri\u2019s strengths last year were best expressed in high-grip conditions, especially when the circuit layout was replete with the sort of high-speed corners that elicited prodigious ground-effect downforce. Piastri\u2019s feel for a car at the limit of grip in high speed \u2014 and the daring with which he could tackle some of the sport\u2019s most ferocious corners \u2014 set him apart.<\/p>\n
He was weaker at lower grip tracks \u2014 Austin, Mexico City, Interlagos and Las Vegas \u2014 and his struggles were made to look more severe because Norris is comparatively strong at coaxing speed from a car that doesn\u2019t want to stick to the road.<\/p>\n
An objective of the 2026 rules was to slash downforce \u2014 and the move away from ground-effect aerodynamics means the car no longer produce the same outrageous grip in high-speed corners. They\u2019re much more limited by the grip generated by the combination of tyre and track surface.<\/p>\n
The corollary of having less downforce and therefore less grip is that the tyres slide around more and degrade faster. Though Piastri\u2019s tyre management last year was excellent, McLaren maintained that Norris was generally more effective at squeezing grip from tyres that had worn out.<\/p>\n
Consider, now, the picture in Spain last weekend, where the track was a sizzling 52\u00b0C \u2014 so damaging for the tyres that Hamilton\u2019s winning strategy was to use four sets of the Pirelli rubber.<\/p>\n
Consider too that the Barcelona layout demands downforce that this year\u2019s cars generally lack and that this year\u2019s McLaren in particular is lacking.<\/p>\n
Consider further that the lack of downforce triggered a tyre life spiral as Piastri attempted to chase cars with more aerodynamic performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re just lacking a little bit across the board,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we are struggling with just we\u2019re that 0.1 or 0.2 seconds off Mercedes and Ferrari, and when you\u2019re needing to try and make up for that, you pay for that with tyre life and deg. That was a big struggle [in Barcelona].\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyre usage is also a particular relative weakness of McLaren this year, contrary to previous seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment we are not as competitive as we were in 2025 in terms of tyre conditioning and degradation, a very clear objective for development,\u201d McLaren principal Andrea Stella said, per Autosport. \u201cWe don\u2019t seem to be having any particular advantage from this point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami, though less demanding in layout, is a similarly difficult circuit for grip and tyre management in the oppressively warm conditions.<\/p>\n
Japan, intriguingly, is normally a tough race for tyres, but resurfacing over the last two seasons has produced a track very high in grip and surprisingly low in degradation, especially with the grand prix now taking place in much cooler March. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Piastri looked most convincing in Suzuka.<\/p>\n
Piastri\u2019s season is far more nuanced than some high-profile sound bites suggest. Certainly it\u2019s not even close to being as bad as it\u2019s been made to seem.<\/p>\n
But the early evidence suggests the Australian has some work still to do to fully acclimatise to the 2026 regulations and his new, less competitive car.<\/p>\n
Given everything we\u2019ve learnt about him, however, you wouldn\u2019t expect that to take long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emotional expression is only ever by degrees for Oscar Piastri, but the famously steady Australian was clearly tilting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-754024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}