{"id":937614,"date":"2026-10-23T02:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T02:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937614\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T02:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T02:44:13","slug":"f1-news-2026-australian-driver-oscar-piastri-comments-on-season-results-ahead-of-american-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/937614\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news 2026 | Australian driver Oscar Piastri comments on season results ahead of American grand prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri<\/a> is slowly becoming comfortable in his McLaren<\/a>, but he admits the strengths that put him in the title race last year are now his biggest weakness. <\/p>\n

Piastri was not afraid to discuss his poor run of results ahead of the US Grand Prix<\/a>, where he hopes to land on top of the podium for the first time this season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Piastri\u2019s highest finish this season was second place.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

It is a vastly different position for the Australian driver compared to last year, having sat first on the drivers\u2019 championship standings with 336 points at this point in the season, while his teammate and eventual world champion Lando Norris was second.<\/p>\n

Twelve months later, the McLaren duo are now sixth and seventh, with Norris claiming five podium finishes, including two victories, and Piastri securing two podium finishes, neither on the top step.<\/p>\n

Sixty-three points separate Norris (sixth) and Piastri (seventh) on the standings.<\/p>\n

While results have not fallen their way, Piastri believes he has almost settled and will be able to pose a threat across the American triple-header \u2013 being the US, Mexico and Sao Paulo Grands Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely not still at the level I want to aspire to be at, but I\u2019m back in the ballpark that I should be in,\u201d he told reporters in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been no secret that this year has been challenging in terms of getting a grip on this year\u2019s car. I feel like the last few weeks, it\u2019s started to click a little bit more. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m slowly getting there, both improving this year and also identifying what I need more of or less of to go quicker from the car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this is not the level I want to be trying to get to. I want to be getting to a much higher level, but it\u2019s a clear sign of progress, which is what I\u2019m after.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mental battle that comes with a mixed bag of results has been well managed by Piastri, who recognised not everything can be a quick fix. <\/p>\n

Even though the team has trialled different things with the car and also their strategy, Piastri made clear that \u201cnot a lot\u201d has changed overall. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been trying some things,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of hard work in terms of how I adapt myself to the car because the things that were often working so well for me at points last year that are kind of the things that are my downfall in a lot of weekends this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you can\u2019t rely on the things you normally want to, it is always challenging in terms of actually adapting, but also, when you\u2019re used to something working for you for a long time, trying to go away from that, there\u2019s a mental challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re making progress and things are starting to feel a little bit more comfortable, but there\u2019s still room to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US Grand Prix will take place at 7am AEDT on Monday, with the first practice session scheduled to start at 4.30am on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri is slowly becoming comfortable in his McLaren, but he admits the strengths that put him in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":937615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-937614","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\/937614","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=937614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/937615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}