McLaren’s Piastri problem: why the 2026 car still isn’t second nature

McLaren’s read on Oscar Piastri is that his current deficit to Lando Norris is not simply a slump in form. Team principal Andrea Stella believes Piastri is still “thinking and driving” the 2026 Formula 1 car, which points to a driver who has not yet made the machinery feel fully instinctive. That is a significant diagnosis for a team with title ambitions, because it suggests the issue is as much about adaptation as it is about outright speed.

The source material frames the problem as a technical mismatch with a psychological layer on top. Over the previous two years, Piastri’s strengths had been especially clear in high-speed corners, but the latest breed of car has not necessarily rewarded those instincts in the same way. Instead, Stella’s comments imply that Piastri is having to consciously manage how he drives in order to extract lap time. When a driver has to think through the process rather than react naturally, the result can be a loss of fluidity, even if the raw potential is still present.

That matters because the comparison inside McLaren is direct. Piastri is being measured against Norris, his teammate, every weekend, and one driver’s comfort level can quickly shape the other’s narrative. If Norris is already operating with a stronger sense of confidence in the car while Piastri is still processing what it wants, the gap can widen for reasons that are not purely about talent. In a championship-level environment, that difference affects more than the timing screens. It influences qualifying, race execution and the way each side of the garage evaluates progress.

Stella’s comments also suggest McLaren sees a responsibility to help Piastri through the issue rather than simply asking for more from the driver. If he is overthinking the driving style, then the task is to remove some of that conscious effort and help the car feel more natural again. That is an important distinction. A driver who looks off pace because of confidence or setup can be misunderstood as being in a slump, but Stella’s framing points to a deeper adaptation challenge that the team believes it can still work through.