Piastri admits McLaren's 2026 car must be 'manhandled' to unlock its speed

Oscar Piastri has described McLaren’s 2026 Formula 1 car as one that must be “manhandled” to be competitive, saying the MCL40 is uniquely unforgiving of any drop below the absolute limit. Speaking to media in Brazil, the Australian — seventh in the drivers’ standings with 152 points and three races to go — offered a candid assessment of a season that has fallen well short of his title challenge last year.

“The best way to describe it is, you’ve got to manhandle the car a bit,” Piastri said. “It’s not a car that naturally does all the things you want. You really have to drive it at 100%, or what feels like about 110%, to be quick, but also to get the car to do more of what you want.”

Piastri acknowledged the MCL40 carries genuine race-winning potential when everything clicks, but stressed that finding and holding that window is the core difficulty. “When you’re able to put it on that limit, it has a lot of potential. The car can be a race-winning car if you manage to sort it out, but just finding that limit is incredibly tough.”

The contrast with last year’s championship-winning machine was stark. “Often you could drive it a lot easier and be just as quick,” he said of the 2025 car. “Whereas this year’s car, as soon as you’re not at 100%, you lose a lot of time very quickly.”

Piastri also conceded that McLaren has lost the development momentum that defined its recent dominance, pointing to Red Bull as the team that has set the benchmark in 2026. “We’ve not been the benchmark this year like we have in the last couple of years, so that’s definitely our aim, to try and improve that,” he said, describing McLaren’s rate of progress as “pretty reasonable” without being exceptional.

Asked directly whether he was still enjoying his racing, Piastri was measured rather than dismissive. “Definitely not as much as the previous years, but yes, there’s definitely been some highlights through the year. There’s also been some lowlights. A bad day at a race track is often still better than a lot of good days in other walks of life.”

Piastri’s two podiums this season came in Japan and Miami. McLaren sits fourth in the constructors’ standings on 398 points, with Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes having already clinched both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles.