Oscar Piastri has admitted that McLaren is struggling to match Red Bull’s consistency as the two teams enter the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix level on 355 points in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship. With third place still to be decided, the Australian believes McLaren faces a major challenge against its rival, although further car developments and the possibility of changing circumstances could influence the outcome.
McLaren, the reigning Constructors’ champion, arrives in Mexico under pressure after a difficult run of results, while Red Bull has recovered ground in recent races. The two teams are now separated only by the championship’s countback rules, setting up a closely contested battle over the remaining Grands Prix.
McLaren and Red Bull level on 355 points in F1 Constructors’ standings
The fight for third place in the 2026 Constructors’ Championship is finely balanced, with McLaren and Red Bull both holding 355 points ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix. Although the teams have identical totals, Red Bull currently occupies third position because it has recorded two more second-place finishes than McLaren.
That means Red Bull would retain third place on countback if the championship were to finish with the current standings. McLaren must therefore improve its position relative to the Milton Keynes-based team to move ahead in the classification.
The situation follows a particularly difficult period for the Woking-based outfit, with McLaren scoring only 49 points across four races as Red Bull drew level in the championship. The recovery by its rival has made the contest for third place one of the important remaining battles of the 2026 season.
Oscar Piastri admits Red Bull has the advantage in consistency
Oscar Piastri is under no illusions about the difficulty of McLaren’s task. The Australian acknowledges that Red Bull currently delivers competitive performances more consistently, while McLaren still needs to improve the overall pace of its car.
“We simply have to keep fighting,” Oscar Piastri explained. “At the moment, we know we’re not consistently as competitive as Red Bull. We’re still working to improve the car’s performance further, and anything can still happen.”
The McLaren driver also highlighted reliability as an important factor that could affect the championship battle. With several races remaining, he believes there is still scope for the situation to change, even if Red Bull currently appears to have the stronger overall package.
“Reliability has been a central issue this year, so the situation could still change in many ways. In terms of outright performance, we clearly still need to make further progress. We have several developments in the pipeline for the car which will hopefully help us in that respect. However, I think finishing ahead of Red Bull will be a big challenge for us.”
His assessment reflects the difficult position McLaren finds itself in after its recent struggles. While Red Bull has become increasingly competitive, the reigning champion is still searching for the improvements required to deliver stronger results across different circuits.
McLaren preparing further upgrades to challenge Red Bull
Despite acknowledging Red Bull’s advantage, Oscar Piastri remains confident that McLaren can make progress. The team is continuing to work on the car’s performance and has several developments planned that it hopes will help reduce the gap to its rival.
However, the Australian recognises that introducing improvements will not automatically guarantee stronger results. McLaren must also address the problems that have prevented it from consistently extracting competitive pace, particularly after the difficulties experienced during the United States Grand Prix.
Those issues were already evident in Austin, where Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri discussed McLaren’s performance problems following the race. The team’s ability to understand and resolve those weaknesses will be important as it attempts to recover third place in the Constructors’ standings.
Oscar Piastri hopes McLaren can recover from Austin struggles in Mexico
Oscar Piastri finished seventh at the United States Grand Prix, a disappointing result that underlined McLaren’s recent lack of competitiveness. Nevertheless, the Australian believes the team has made some progress towards understanding why its performance fell short of expectations.
“Of course, we don’t have all the answers yet, but at least we have an idea of why things didn’t go as we’d hoped,” Oscar Piastri said. “Some of these problems are similar to those we encountered at the beginning of the season. However, there are still several races on the calendar that we can use to continue working on our performance.”
That assessment offers some encouragement ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix. Although McLaren has not yet identified every cause of its difficulties, recognising similarities with problems encountered earlier in the season could help guide its efforts to improve the car.
The challenge is particularly significant given the narrow championship margins. As highlighted by the Constructors’ Championship standings following Austin, McLaren and Red Bull are separated only by the countback criteria, leaving every remaining point potentially important.
For Oscar Piastri and McLaren, the objective is therefore clear: improve outright performance, recover consistency and keep fighting Red Bull until the end of the season. The Australian accepts that finishing ahead of the Milton Keynes team will be difficult, but believes there is still enough uncertainty in the remaining races for the championship positions to change.
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