What a difference a year makes! After winning the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri was some 34 points ahead of his teammate and 104 clear of world champion Max Verstappen. He then claimed P3 at the Italian Grand Prix, but that was all she wrote for the Australian as he lost his way, finishing third in the drivers’ title race behind Max Verstappen.
Following poor qualifying sessions in Austin and Mexico, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella explained the root of the problems Piastri was facing. “The fastest car is a car that needs to be driven in a certain way, especially when you have conditions like here, and to some extent in Austin, with hot Tarmac, sliding tyres,” said Stella.
He went on to claim that in such conditions, Lando Norris’s driving style suited these kinds of conditions, whilst Piastri is a driver who prefers “high grip, that’s where he can exploit this incredible talent.”
The McLaren boss pointed to the fact that 2025 was only Oscar’s third season in Formula One and that he was still learning when compared to his more experienced teammate. “So nothing to worry [about]. I think it’s more a calibration exercise for Oscar. I’m sure this calibration will pay off already in the race and in any future event in which the regime in which the tyre and the car interact with the Tarmac is similar to here.”
The 2026 Shift: Downforce Reductions and Points Disparities
Come the huge regulation changes for the 2026 cars, one thing to note was the downforce available to the teams had been slashed by some 25%. Whilst the McLaren teammate head-to-head stats show there is little difference between the drivers, in the drivers’ championship standings Norris has 50% more points than his teammate.
Granted, Norris has two pole positions while Piastri has yet to start from P1, but their head-to-head in races where both finished is currently 5-5. Lando heads his teammate 7-5 in Grand Prix qualifying, which reflects his pole opportunities. Yet these numbers are not representative of one driver being crushed by their teammate—as it appears with each passing weekend.
Given McLaren’s shocking start to the year, where a lack of pace and unreliability were regular features of a race weekend, it was neck and neck between the papaya teammates for the first third of the year, with Piastri one point ahead of his teammate after round 7 in Austria.
Yet in the last four races, Norris has flourished while Piastri is struggling to hit the heights he did last season. The points difference is now 159-104. In just four race weekends, that’s a dramatic drop-off from Piastri, or is it the case that Lando Norris is driving as well as ever in his F1 career?
Technical Struggles Over Psychological Factors
Last time out in Zandvoort, whilst Norris stormed to victory, finishing some 11 seconds ahead of his rival Kimi Antonelli who was on fresher tyres, Piastri was languishing some 32 seconds behind the winning time. Team Principal Andrea Stella was forced to intervene on behalf of his Aussie driver, claiming the issue was not a psychological problem but a technical difficulty his younger driver was facing.
It’s been a year since Piastri last claimed the top step of the podium in Zandvoort, and during that time he has just four podiums to his name, the latest being at the 2026 Japanese and Miami Grands Prix. Since the Florida race, Oscar has finished outside the points on three occasions—one being due to mechanical failure—and across his other five results, his average classified result is P5.
In Zandvoort, Stella was forced to explain the big difference in the performance of his drivers. “I think last year we had seen already with Oscar that from a technical driving point of view, when the car has this low level of grip, like we saw last year, for instance, in Mexico or in Austin, he needs to adapt the way he drives, the way he thinks, the driving, his expectations.”
“And this requires a bit of mental effort, which gets him to lose a couple of tenths of a second, because you sort of have to process rather than drive through pure instinct because what happens is what you expect.”
So Piastri is having to adapt his driving style again to suit the characteristics of the 2026 cars, claims Stella, although he denies there is any mental deficiency in the Australian’s approach to racing this season. “I don’t think it has anything to do with any psychological kind of opportunity. This is purely technical,” stated the McLaren boss.
Qualifying Flash vs. Sunday Race Pace Deficits
There were glimpses in Zandvoort that Piastri was getting to grips with the MCL40. In Sprint qualifying, he was P4 and just half a tenth behind his teammate. In Grand Prix qualifying, he was a tenth and a half behind Norris, but his woeful race pace saw this performance gap magnified on Sunday.
In an effort to remove the spotlight from his driver’s performance at the Dutch Grand Prix, Stella reminded assembled reporters that the team had failed their Aussie driver with a slow pit stop. Yet the majority of Piastri’s lost time came when he failed on the second stint to get the hard tyre into the proper operating temperature window.
The result: his MCL40 endured low grip for the final stint of the race, something Piastri is uncomfortable with. The question is whether Piastri can ever recalibrate his driving style to feel at home with the new era of low-grip cars Formula One currently enjoys?
After all, Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time champion, failed to get to grips with the ground effect era of cars between 2022-2025. There across 92 Grands Prix, Hamilton won just two, and one was inherited when his teammate was disqualified.
The Low-Grip Dilemma and Piastri’s F1 Future
Fighting his driver’s corner, Stella argues that the current state of play in F1 sees the top drivers covered by a tenth of a second. “And as soon as things are not optimised, then you may have a very significant positional loss. If you’re not optimised, now you are P6. It’s very brutal from this point of view, so I think we just have to keep working with Oscar on all the opportunities.”
That may be the case in qualifying, but Piastri’s race pace is nowhere. If we go back to Austria and exclude the safety car finish at Silverstone and Piastri’s DNF in Hungary, he on average is around 20 seconds off the pace of the eventual Grand Prix winner.
This issue of Oscar Piastri not enjoying low-grip environments must be resolved by the Australian, or his future in F1 has to be questionable. And Andrea Stella repeatedly publicly stating this as one of Piastri’s weaknesses, doesn’t help in any way at all.
There will always be low grip environments in Formula One, due to weather, green tracks or the nature of the asphalt. Declaring one of your drivers cannot succeed in such low grip conditions is tantamount to a death sentence for his career.
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A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
