{"id":893723,"date":"2026-09-16T05:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T05:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893723\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T05:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T05:32:14","slug":"f1-news-mclaren-identifies-key-oscar-piastri-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893723\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: McLaren identifies key Oscar Piastri weakness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"McLaren\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrea Stella has spoke about what he believes is holing Oscar Piastri back in 2026. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n

Piastri has found this year\u2019s MCL40 more difficult to master than its predecessor, with the change in Formula 1 regulations producing a package that has not played as readily to his strengths.<\/p>\n

The difference has become increasingly apparent alongside Lando Norris, who sits 66 points ahead of Piastri in the drivers\u2019 championship after building momentum through the most recent rounds.<\/p>\n

Piastri remains seventh on 120 points and has not returned to the podium since Miami, with his latest weekend in Madrid ending in eighth after another difficult run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McLaren team principal Stella believes part of the solution lies in making the car feel more intuitive for Piastri, reducing the amount of conscious adjustment required while he is driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with Oscar we need to qualify better, stay closer to the podium finish positions from the start,\u201d Stella said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Monza he was P3 at the end of qualifying but somehow we managed to start P6 for the impeding. So there are several circumstances of which we need to take more control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to execute better and then at the same time we need to get more in tune between Oscar and the MCL40 because still Oscar is driving and thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you drive and think, things get slowed down; slower as a driver in terms of deciding what to do and ultimately you are slower in terms of lap times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri has already acknowledged that adapting to McLaren\u2019s latest car has required more work than he experienced last season.<\/p>\n

Speaking before the Spanish Grand Prix, the 25-year-old said he had spent much of the campaign experimenting with different approaches in an attempt to find one that worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve certainly not gelled as well with this year\u2019s car as last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone has to change their driving style a bit from year to year \u2013 obviously that\u2019s our job. That\u2019s part of why we\u2019re here is because we need to adapt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd definitely this year\u2019s been a bit tricky in trying to get through a few things, and we\u2019ve tried a few different directions. Sometimes you just need time to find the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piastri felt progress had emerged at Monza, despite losing three grid positions for impeding Liam Lawson after qualifying third<\/a>, saying McLaren had identified changes that helped him find more speed.<\/p>\n

Madrid proved another setback, however, with Piastri already facing a difficult afternoon after qualifying before opening-lap contact with George Russell left him carrying front wing damage.<\/p>\n

A poorly timed Virtual Safety Car then complicated McLaren\u2019s strategy, with Piastri eventually finishing eighth after becoming stuck behind Franco Colapinto during the closing stages.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he used the race to continue working through the difficulties he has encountered with the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think today we just tried to learn as much as I could to get more out of the car and the way I drive it,\u201d Piastri said after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah. Hopefully we\u2019ve learnt a few things for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stella said he remained confident that work will translate into improved performances over the remaining rounds, with qualifying execution and Piastri\u2019s comfort in the car identified as two of McLaren\u2019s main areas of focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the agenda is very clear as to what we have to improve and I expect, like I always say, that we will get on top of that and we will see a stronger Oscar in the final part [of the year],\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

F1 returns with the Azerbaijan GP from September 24-26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrea Stella has spoke about what he believes is holing Oscar Piastri back in 2026. Image: XPB Images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[13273,64,63,817,813,816,913,2333,85],"class_list":["post-893723","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-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893723","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=893723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}