Oscar Piastri’s struggles during the 2026 Formula 1 season have exposed a fundamental challenge in adapting to the sport’s new generation of cars.
According to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, the Australian has not lost his natural speed or ability.
Instead, the precise and controlled driving style that once made him so competitive is no longer ideally suited to the demands of the current machinery.
While teammate Lando Norris has adapted more effectively to the new regulations, Piastri has found it increasingly difficult to extract consistent performance from the McLaren. Stella believes the explanation lies in the car’s technical characteristics rather than any decline in the driver’s talent.
From Championship Contender to a Difficult Season
Piastri emerged as a genuine World Championship contender in 2025, winning seven Grands Prix and leading the standings for 15 races before eventually finishing third behind Norris and Max Verstappen.
The transition to the 2026 regulations, however, has brought a significant change in fortunes.
The Australian has secured just two podium finishes this season, with his most recent coming at the Miami Grand Prix. He has subsequently gone 14 consecutive Grands Prix without another top-three result.
The championship standings underline the difference between the McLaren teammates. Norris has accumulated 201 points compared with Piastri’s 138, establishing a 63-point advantage.
For Stella, that gap reflects how differently the two drivers have adapted to the technical demands of the new cars.
Why the 2026 Cars Demand a Different Approach
The latest generation of Formula 1 machinery produces aerodynamic downforce differently from the ground-effect cars used until the end of 2025.
One of the most significant changes concerns rear-end stability. The new cars are generally more mobile at the rear, requiring drivers to adopt a more aggressive and physically demanding approach to extracting lap time.
According to Stella, this has fundamentally changed what constitutes an effective driving technique.
“The car requires a lot of effort to produce lap time and demands a much higher level of intensity in driving inputs than last year,” Stella explained.
He acknowledged that understanding these characteristics has taken time, particularly for Piastri.
“That’s also one of the reasons why Oscar almost appears to have lost some of his competitiveness compared to Lando.”
The McLaren team principal stressed that the issue is technical, with the car requiring a different approach to corner entry, rotation and overall vehicle control.
Piastri Must Move Away From His Trademark Precision
Throughout his Formula 1 career, Piastri has been recognised for his exceptionally clean, precise and repeatable driving style.
His ability to deliver competitive lap times through controlled inputs and consistent racing lines was particularly effective with the previous generation of cars.
However, Stella believes those strengths are no longer consistently rewarded by the current McLaren.
“I’ve always said it was a technical matter,” he explained.
“Oscar simply needed to understand how to force the car to do certain things and, in a way, abandon the idea that driving fast necessarily means driving cleanly.”
Stella highlighted how distinctive Piastri’s technique had been in previous seasons.
“What probably characterised Oscar when he was fast in the past was precisely how clean his driving was. It was really interesting to observe in the data.”
That approach produced highly repeatable and competitive performances, but the same combination of qualities is proving harder to reproduce with the 2026 car.
The challenge is therefore not simply to increase speed, but to adapt the techniques through which that speed is achieved.
McLaren Upgrades Unlikely to Provide an Immediate Solution
McLaren is preparing further aerodynamic developments for the remaining races of the season, with the aim of increasing downforce and improving overall competitiveness.
However, Stella has warned that additional aerodynamic performance alone is unlikely to resolve the handling characteristics affecting Piastri.
“I don’t expect the upgrades we bring to the car to improve this characteristic,” he admitted.
The team believes a more fundamental technical solution will be required, rather than simply adding aerodynamic load without addressing the underlying behaviour of the chassis.
Stella indicated that this work is already part of McLaren’s longer-term development programme, particularly its preparations for the 2027 MCL41.
For Piastri, the immediate challenge is to continue adapting his driving style to a car that demands a less conventional approach to achieving maximum performance.
His difficulties do not necessarily indicate that the qualities which made him a championship contender have disappeared. Instead, McLaren’s assessment suggests that those qualities must now be combined with a more forceful driving technique to meet the demands of modern Formula 1.
The question is whether Piastri can complete that transition before McLaren delivers a car better suited to his natural strengths.
