{"id":850576,"date":"2026-08-10T19:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850576\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T19:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:22:09","slug":"oscar-piastri-telling-claim-from-andrea-stella-as-mclaren-comeback-builds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/850576\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri telling claim from Andrea Stella as McLaren comeback builds"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was not a given that Oscar Piastri<\/a> would maintain the same \u201charmony\u201d with McLaren<\/a> teammate Lando Norris, after Piastri came out on the losing end of the F1 2026 title battle.<\/p>\n

That is the claim made by McLaren team principal Andrea Stella who, in a telling admission, confirmed that the \u201crelationship\u201d between Norris and Piastri<\/a> has actually grown even stronger in F1 2026. Stella also praised the pair for how they have worked to adapt to the new F1 2026 power units, which have been criticised at times by both drivers.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris strengthening alliance<\/p>\n

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

F1 2026 marked a complete reset for Formula 1. While Mercedes thrived in the early rounds, McLaren, the reigning double champions, struggled for results and reliability.<\/p>\n

But, McLaren achieved a crucial breakthrough at the Hungarian Grand Prix as Lando Norris took the win. Oscar Piastri looked set to be part of a McLaren one-two, one way or the other, before a gearbox failure ended his race.<\/p>\n

In addition to the successful introduction of its Hungarian GP upgrade package, Stella says that McLaren is also making gains with its understanding of the Mercedes power unit, even if there is still further progress to be made.<\/p>\n

The new F1 2026 power units have proven polarising. Piastri bluntly said that \u201cit sucks\u201d in Spa. Norris was a vocal early critic of the regulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very pleased with how our driver line-up is performing in this early part of the 2026 season,\u201d said Stella in a McLaren Q&A.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Oscar and Lando \u2013 as indeed for their twenty colleagues on the F1 grid \u2013 the impact of the new regulations has been nothing short of disruptive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new generation of single-seaters requires not only an adaptation of driving style but, above all, much greater focus on understanding how to exploit the full potential offered by the new power units.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe learning process has at times proved complicated and was slowed down, particularly in the early stages, by various reliability issues. Both have responded in the right way, working with great commitment alongside the team, day in, day out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still room for improvement, particularly regarding the power unit, and we are working very well with our partners at HPP, including on the interaction between the driver and the power unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri and Norris were involved in an intriguing 2025 title battle which also included Max Verstappen. The end result was Norris becoming world champion. Piastri was forced to settle for third, despite at one stage leading the championship comfortably.<\/p>\n

Stella said it was no guarantee that Piastri and Norris relations would remain the same after 2025, especially on Piastri\u2019s side as the loser in that intra-team battle.<\/p>\n

Yet, this is a partnership growing stronger, not broken.<\/p>\n

More on Oscar Piastri from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri has been given a stark McLaren warning as Norris pulls ahead<\/a><\/p>\n

How Barcelona GP \u2018difficulties\u2019 triggered Oscar Piastri\u2019s McLaren turnaround<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother aspect I\u2019m really enjoying about our drivers is the way they\u2019re working together,\u201d Stella continued. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a given that, after last year \u2013 when they found themselves battling for the world title right up to the final race \u2013 the harmony they\u2019d built would remain intact.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet not only has this not changed, but the relationship between them and with the team has actually become even stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst this might, in a sense, have been expected of Lando \u2013 given that he was ultimately the one to become champion \u2013 it was not quite so predictable for Oscar, who, instead, has relied even more heavily on the team to accelerate his development, both on and off the track.\u201d<\/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: MotoGP icon Casey Stoner weighs in on \u2018overcomplicated\u2019 F1 2026<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was not a given that Oscar Piastri would maintain the same \u201charmony\u201d with McLaren teammate Lando Norris,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[13273,64,63,817,813,816,818,1737,913,945,44,2333,85],"class_list":["post-850576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-stella","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850576","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=850576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}