Oscar Piastri acknowledged that he is still trying to understand why he cannot extract the same level of performance from the McLaren car as Lando Norris in the 2026 Formula 1 season. The Australian again finished behind his teammate at the Dutch GP, ending up only sixth.
Read more F1: Alonso says future does not depend on Honda’s development
Norris won the last two races, Hungary and the Netherlands, while Piastri had a retirement and a sixth place. The difference between the two also appears in qualifying, with a 13 to 4 advantage for the Briton in the direct head-to-head this year, including Sprint sessions.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first race where the pace just didn’t show up,” Piastri said. “Lando just won the race with a considerable advantage, so I think the car is in good shape. It’s just that, for some reason, I couldn’t extract his pace.”
The Australian believes part of the explanation may lie in his own driving style. “In the driving style, there must clearly be something,” he said. He highlighted that he felt more comfortable in Q1 and Q2 in Zandvoort, but couldn’t reproduce the same level in Q3 and especially during the race.
Read more F1: Norris says he deserves Hamilton and Verstappen’s salary
Piastri even took third place after overtaking George Russell on the third lap, but lost ground after a slow 5.4-second pit stop. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton also passed the McLaren driver, who received the checkered flag 32 seconds behind Norris.
Andrea Stella ruled out any psychological component to explain the difference. “This is purely technical,” said the McLaren boss. According to him, two factors worked against Piastri: the slow pit stop, which caused the team to lose position to Russell, and the difficulty in making the Hard tires work in the second stint.
“They remained all the time in a very, very low grip regime,” Stella explained. The Italian added that with at least three teams separated by less than a tenth, any small loss of performance can cause a significant drop in positions.
Read more F1 today? Find out if there is a race this Sunday, the 30th
