Oscar Piastri believes that McLaren is closing the gap to Mercedes in the 2026 Formula 1 season. Despite the problems faced at the Canadian GP, the Australian sees clear signs of progress and believes the team is not far from the current championship benchmark.
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The assessment gains importance because McLaren had a difficult start to the season but showed significant progress after a comprehensive update package introduced in Miami. The changes helped transform the performance of the MCL40 and allowed Piastri to fight directly for positions with George Russell throughout that weekend.
In Canada, the expectation was that this battle would happen again. However, a wrong choice to start on intermediate tires on a drying track compromised the British team’s race. Additionally, Piastri received a penalty after an incident with Alex Albon, which further hindered his chances of a notable result.
Even so, the Australian driver highlighted positive aspects of the weekend in Montreal: “We have some tasks to do to make the car even faster,” he said. According to him, despite the lack of striking results, there were important advances compared to the performance shown in Miami.
“It was a positive weekend in different areas. Maybe it wasn’t spectacular in terms of results, but I felt I made good progress in some things compared to Miami,” he explained. The Australian admitted that the positives might not be so obvious at first glance, but he believes they exist.
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Analyzing the current scenario, Piastri acknowledged that Mercedes still has an advantage over McLaren. However, he believes the gap is not large and that there is room to reduce this distance through a better understanding of the car and the power unit: “Mercedes was still clearly ahead, but we managed to get closer. It was a similar scenario to Miami, which is not a bad thing,” he said, also highlighting that when he manages to secure a favorable track position, McLaren is already able to keep up with the rivals’ pace.
Piastri also emphasized that the team continues to seek more performance: “We still want to find lap time, we want to extract more from the car and the power unit, if possible,” he added.
Despite the optimism, the Australian acknowledged that McLaren is not yet in a position to win races solely based on the pace shown. Still, he left a warning to competitors: “We are definitely not in a position to win races on our own merit at this moment, but we are not far off,” he concluded.
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