{"id":834059,"date":"2026-07-30T19:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834059\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T19:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:20:09","slug":"mclaren-pinpoints-oscar-piastri-f1-2026-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834059\/","title":{"rendered":"McLaren pinpoints Oscar Piastri F1 2026 struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a> team principal Andrea Stella has said Oscar Piastri<\/a> is still getting to grips with F1 2026 machinery, given the difference in nature between the cars of yesteryear.<\/p>\n

The 2026 cars were designed with lower downforce in mind, with narrower tyres also in place alongside active aerodynamics and a near 50-50 split in internal combustion and electrical power.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri still adapting to F1 2026 McLaren \u2013 Stella<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

Piastri led half of the Hungarian Grand Prix at the weekend and, while he holds two podium finishes this season, the start of his season was hindered with two DNSs in a row, one self-inflicted in Melbourne before an electrical issue in China saw neither McLaren start.<\/p>\n

He has registered two finishes outside the points this season and, following his late retirement in Budapest, heads into the summer break without a podium in seven races.<\/p>\n

His McLaren<\/a> teammate, Lando Norris, took victory in Hungary after he completed a successful overcut on the Australian, helped by Piastri\u2019s mid-race contact with Carlos Sainz while coming up to lap him.<\/p>\n

That ultimately proved immaterial given his retirement later in the race, but Stella believes Piastri will improve in the second half of the season once he further understands how to make the most of the current machinery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have seen a great trajectory of development for Lando, and this is honestly the same with Oscar as well,\u201d Stella told PlanetF1.com and others in Hungary.<\/p>\n

\u201cOscar is still getting in tune with these 2026 cars, low grip cars, and there\u2019s an opportunity there to find some pace, and there\u2019s great work happening between Oscar, his engineering team, and the wider team of Oscar.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think we will see a very strong Oscar for the second part of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

More analysis from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Aston Martin half-season review: Adrian Newey warning shot as Honda readies Act 2<\/a><\/p>\n

McLaren responds to Oscar Piastri anger after Hungarian GP team radio<\/a><\/p>\n

Piastri was at Portimao with McLaren, Norris and reserve driver Leonardo Fornaroli for a Testing of a Previous Car [TPC] outing on Wednesday, notching laps before the team takes its summer break.<\/p>\n

For the Australian, it was the chance to clock 55 laps at a circuit on which he has not yet driven in Formula 1 machinery, as Portugal prepares itself to return to the Formula 1 calendar in 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was my first time driving the F1 circuit in Portimao,\u201d he said after his running.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe changing conditions made it an interesting place to drive, and the elevation changes made it really fun. We got through the entire programme we set out to do, and the team are happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good point to pause for the summer shutdown. It\u2019s been a pretty intense season for us, so it will be nice for everyone to switch off before we get back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: F1 confirms Max Verstappen stance as Stefano Domenicali responds to rule backlash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has said Oscar Piastri is still getting to grips with F1 2026 machinery,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[13273,64,63,818,913,806,805,803,804,44,2333,85],"class_list":["post-834059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-andrea-stella","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-mclaren","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-news","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834059","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=834059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}