McLaren’s challenging start to the season
Despite having a Mercedes power unit, the reigning world champion team McLaren has faced a difficult start to the 2026 season. The engineers have had to intervene on the car multiple times over the race weekends. In Australia, they lost Oscar Piastri during the installation laps, while in China, neither of the cars was able to participate in the race. Finally, in Japan, both MCL40s crossed the finish line, allowing the team to earn important points.
Piastri delivers the biggest result
However, the greatest contribution didn’t come from world champion Lando Norris, but from Oscar Piastri. The Australian managed to secure a podium in his first real race appearance of the season—a result that he can be extremely proud of, as the team also needed it badly.
The best Piastri yet
This pride was evident in the words of McLaren team principal Andrea Stella after the Japanese Grand Prix, the team’s third event of the season, in an interview with ‘Crash.net’: “We are seeing the best Piastri ever. He has never been this strong since entering Formula 1. I say this even though he did not participate in the first two races. Looking at the Japan weekend, the testing, and the preparation phase for the championship, this is exactly what we saw.”
“At Suzuka, he simply had the opportunity to show it. After two difficult races, this was exactly what was needed. Especially if we think about his home race, where he couldn’t even start due to a potentially avoidable situation. He went through moments that could have slowed him down—but they didn’t.”
Oscar Piastri’s leadership shines through
The Australian demonstrated remarkable inner strength, which the team greatly appreciated. It now seems that much of the responsibility rests on his shoulders. These small signals could even influence the balance between McLaren’s drivers in the future: “Through this performance, he showed a lot of his charisma. The team draws inspiration from this kind of charismatic leadership that drivers can provide. These are the stimuli the team needs to overcome difficulties,” explained the Italian team principal.
Stella outlines the team’s next goal
While Oscar Piastri has given the team a boost, McLaren now needs to repay his efforts by providing both him and Norris with a car capable of consistently fighting at the front. It will require a lot of work, but Stella knows where to focus: “We need to improve the chassis by a few tenths of a second, and that is what we aim to do in the next races,” he concluded.