Piastri warns Red Bull have joined Mercedes as the class of F1 2026

Oscar Piastri has conceded that Red Bull have joined Mercedes as the benchmark in Formula 1’s 2026 season, warning that McLaren must find answers ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix after back-to-back difficult weekends in Baku and Sepang.

Red Bull arrived at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a sweeping upgrade package for the RB22, introducing revised sidepods, floor, mirrors, halo and diffuser. The changes delivered an immediate return: Max Verstappen charged from eighth on the grid to hound George Russell for victory in Baku before romping to a dominant win in Malaysia, where Verstappen was, in Piastri’s words, “definitely the quickest car-and-driver combination.”

“Mercedes have always been the class of the field, and I think Red Bull have kind of joined them in the last couple of weeks,” Piastri said. “Whatever Red Bull put on their car in Baku clearly was big — if Max had started at the front there, it would have put George under a lot of pressure for the whole race, not just at the end.”

McLaren also introduced updates in Baku — revised sidepods, engine cover, floor, diffuser, rear suspension and rear wing on the MCL40 — but team principal Andrea Stella acknowledged the package performed as expected without delivering the relative gain the team had hoped for against its rivals. Piastri was on course for a podium in Azerbaijan before a late lock-up cost him, and in Malaysia both he and Lando Norris qualified and finished outside the top five.

Compounding McLaren’s difficulties, the team has since confirmed it was hampered by fuel injection issues across both rounds, with a fix targeted for Singapore. Whether that remedy is sufficient to close the gap to Mercedes and Red Bull remains uncertain.

Norris was candid about the scale of the challenge. “There were a fair few takeaways from Malaysia, both from my side and from us as a team — from what happened in the race, but also general things from a car point of view,” he said. “How can we get back to the same level as we were in Budapest, Zandvoort and Madrid?”

Piastri noted that Ferrari and McLaren continue to trade positions in the midfield of the leading pack, while Mercedes have maintained consistent front-running pace throughout the season. With Singapore next on the calendar — a circuit that places a premium on downforce and mechanical grip rather than straight-line speed — McLaren will be hoping the circuit characteristics offer a more favourable backdrop for a response.