Piastri: Less Pressure Means More Room to Experiment
Oscar Piastri says lower stakes in 2026 have let him try new things behind the wheel, a year after taking his McLaren title fight to the final rounds.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri is having the hardest season of his career at the team, and he has found something useful in it: the freedom to try things he could not risk while fighting for a championship.
The Australian sits seventh in the Drivers’ Championship on 92 points, without a win and with three retirements, a year on from a campaign that made him a title contender into the closing rounds.
What Piastri Actually Said
His framing was measured rather than defeated.
“The stakes aren’t quite as high at the moment as what they were, especially compared to last year,” Piastri said. “Obviously, you’re still trying to do your absolute best and get the best result you can, but there’s a little bit less pressure, which means you’re able to try new things and experiment a little bit more, and see how you can improve.”
He went further on what the season has given him. “I think the good results have been one thing, but I feel like I’ve also learned a lot about how I can improve myself as a driver, even if the results don’t always show it.”
And on ambition for the remaining rounds: “In terms of results, I would love to be able to be challenging for wins again, as I did at the Hungaroring.”
The Season Behind the Comments
The numbers are unflattering without context and more interesting with it.
Piastri did not start the opening two rounds in Australia and Bahrain. He then took second in the third race and third in the fourth, before the season became inconsistent: an 11th, a run of fifth and fourth places, another 11th, and a retirement in Hungary from a race where McLaren finally found its form.
Team-mate Lando Norris is fifth on 128 points and won at the Hungaroring, McLaren’s first victory of 2026. That is a 36-point gap between team-mates in a season where the car has not been the class of the field.
McLaren is third in the Constructors’ Championship on 220 points, behind Mercedes on 379 and Ferrari on 307.
Why the 2026 Reset Hit Some Drivers Harder
The regulation change is the backdrop to all of this, and it has not affected everyone equally.
The 2026 cars demand a different approach. Energy management has become central, and the relationship between cornering speed and energy recovery has produced what Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord called “a somewhat counter-intuitive formula, where the faster you are through the corners, the more energy you actually save.”
Drivers whose natural style suited the previous generation have had to unlearn habits. That is a slower process for some than others, and it has produced an unusual season in which Max Verstappen is sixth without a win and a second-year driver leads the championship.
Piastri’s response, treating the season as a development year rather than a lost one, is at least a coherent strategy.
The Risk in the Framing
There is a version of this that is genuinely healthy and a version that becomes an excuse, and the difference will only be visible in the second half of the season.
Piastri’s own standard is the one he set himself: challenging for wins again, as at the Hungaroring. McLaren has confirmed it will keep developing the 2026 car rather than switching fully to 2027, and the package started in Hungary completes across Zandvoort and Singapore.
If that package works, Piastri will have a car capable of winning and no pressure while driving it. That is an unusual combination, and historically a productive one.
What Comes Next
The season resumes at the Dutch Grand Prix on 21-23 August, a sprint weekend that offers an extra points opportunity and only one practice session to prepare for it.
Piastri won at Zandvoort in 2025. Whether that counts for anything under a completely different set of regulations is doubtful, but it is a circuit he has beaten everyone at before.
Twelve rounds remain. On his own framing, Piastri has spent eleven of them learning. The rest is where he shows what for.
Source: RACER
