Oscar Piastri believes one fundamental characteristic of McLaren’s 2026 MCL40 explains why he has found this season so much harder: where he could win races last year while driving at “99%”, the Australian says the current car demands “101%” commitment to produce competitive lap times. Piastri is therefore trying to change his driving style as he searches for a way to consistently extract the performance from a car he believes becomes extremely difficult whenever it is not driven right on the limit.
Baku appeared capable of becoming an important turning point. Oscar Piastri qualified third with the heavily updated MCL40 and hoped to return to the podium for the first time since Miami. Instead, a mistake at Turn 1 following the second Safety Car restart dropped him to 15th before he eventually crossed the line in a disappointing 13th position.
Oscar Piastri loses Baku podium chance with Turn 1 lock-up
Oscar Piastri had been under increasing pressure from Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull after losing the second position he gained at the start to Max Verstappen at the first restart.
The decisive moment came when the Australian suddenly locked both front wheels while defending into Turn 1. The incident surprised Oscar Piastri because he did not believe he had made an obvious mistake with his inputs.
“I need to analyse what happened because it was quite strange to suddenly lock both front wheels like that,” Oscar Piastri explained. “I don’t think I did anything wrong. Obviously I was following a different line than usual because I was defending and I don’t know whether I hit a bump in the asphalt, but I was surprised by the reaction of the car.”
McLaren itself acknowledged that Baku exposed several limitations of the car, particularly its lack of straight-line speed. The team nevertheless leaves Azerbaijan with useful information after introducing one of its most significant development packages of the year, part of the major MCL40 upgrade programme brought to Baku.
Piastri admits Verstappen and Hadjar had stronger race pace
Oscar Piastri has rarely been a driver to search for excuses, and his assessment of the race was equally direct. Once Max Verstappen moved ahead, he did not believe the McLaren had sufficient pace to fight back.
“Once Max got ahead of me, I didn’t have the pace to catch him again and it would have been interesting to see whether I could have kept Hadjar behind,” Oscar Piastri said. “To be honest, I know it would have been difficult and I probably would have finished fourth because I wasn’t comfortable on the mediums.”
That assessment reflects a difficult season that the championship table alone does not fully explain. Oscar Piastri sits seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, 66 points behind McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, who has also won two Grands Prix in 2026.
The Azerbaijan weekend had offered signs that the picture might finally be changing. McLaren introduced a substantial technical package featuring a major aerodynamic philosophy change, and Oscar Piastri appeared increasingly capable of understanding how he needed to approach the updated car.
“In general, I wouldn’t necessarily say I felt more comfortable with the car, but I was able to get better lap times from it because I managed to understand which direction I needed to take with my driving style,” Oscar Piastri explained.
Piastri: 2026 McLaren has to be driven at ‘101%’
The most revealing part of Oscar Piastri’s analysis concerns how fundamentally different the MCL40 feels compared with McLaren’s 2025 car.
“With the previous cars, especially in races, I was driving at 99% of the potential,” Oscar Piastri said. “I had to preserve the tyres a little, but I was fast.
“With these cars, on the other hand, you always have to go at 101%, and as soon as you don’t manage to do that, you lose a huge amount of lap time. That’s why I say this weekend wasn’t necessarily easier, but I was able to reach the limit more easily.
“Hopefully I’ve learned some interesting things that I can carry forward, but it’s definitely still a learning process.”
That distinction goes a long way towards explaining why Oscar Piastri has found the MCL40 so demanding. Rather than being able to leave a small margin while protecting the tyres, the Australian believes the 2026 car rewards a much more aggressive approach to reaching its performance ceiling.
Piastri changes driving style to unlock a more nervous MCL40
Oscar Piastri’s assessment also highlights how much McLaren has changed between 2025 and 2026. Last year’s car was highly adaptable across a wide range of circuit characteristics, while the MCL40 has proved much more critical and sensitive.
One factor is the car’s compact architecture. The MCL40 uses a wheelbase around 15 centimetres shorter than the Mercedes, while McLaren has also opted for significantly shorter gear ratios. Those decisions have contributed to a more nervous overall package despite the highly effective aerodynamic developments introduced by the technical group led by Rob Marshall.
The gearbox philosophy has produced a particularly distinctive performance profile. McLaren’s shorter gearing can offer advantages in acceleration but also creates compromises elsewhere, as explored in the analysis of how McLaren’s shorter gear ratios influence MCL40 performance.
That leaves Oscar Piastri trying to adapt his own technique rather than waiting for the car to come towards him. The broader evolution of the package can be followed through the latest McLaren developments, with Baku providing valuable information despite the disappointing race result.
For Oscar Piastri, the encouraging element is that he believes he made progress in understanding how to access the MCL40’s limit. The challenge is that, unlike the more forgiving McLaren he raced successfully in 2025, finding that limit in the 2026 car appears to demand virtually everything from the driver on every lap.
Leave a Reply