Piastri Is Finding His McLaren Confidence — But Norris Still Sets the Standard
GOATIFYOscar Piastri's 2026 season has demanded something that rarely appeared to trouble him during his rapid rise in Formula 1: a change to the way he drives. The Australian finished third in the championship last year, but the new McLaren MCL40 has not rewarded his familiar instincts consistently. Team-mate Lando Norris has been faster over one lap far more often, leaving Piastri to work through a technical reset while the season moves toward its final six rounds.
Yet McLaren chief executive Zak Brown sees a shift. After two podiums in a difficult campaign and a messy Singapore weekend, Brown believes Piastri is rediscovering confidence rather than simply waiting for the car to improve. The distinction matters: the team needs both drivers extracting performance, especially with its rivals closing in ahead of the United States Grand Prix.
Why Brown Believes Piastri Is Finally Getting Comfortable
Brown's encouragement is notable precisely because the statistics have not yet returned to Piastri's 2025 level. The 25-year-old has recorded two Grand Prix podiums in 2026, while Norris has taken two victories and beaten him in qualifying at 11 of the first 17 rounds. That is a substantial one-lap gap for drivers in the same machinery, even allowing for different weekends, conditions and reliability.
Brown's interpretation is not that Piastri suddenly forgot how to be quick. Formula 1's new-generation cars have changed the relationship between driver inputs, energy deployment, tyre management and the balance available at different speeds. Drivers who relied on a particular corner-entry feeling or a predictable response to the brakes may need to alter their habits. Piastri's previous strengths remain valuable, but the MCL40 has not always made them easy to access.
Team principal Andrea Stella has described situations in which Piastri cannot simply drive by instinct. That is an unusually revealing diagnosis: it suggests the challenge is not a single missing setup part or one bad qualifying lap. The driver must develop repeatable techniques that work across different corners, tyre compounds and changing track conditions. Engineers can refine the car, but the person in the cockpit still has to learn what the new platform rewards.
Piastri has acknowledged that approaches which succeeded in previous seasons do not automatically work now. He has also stressed that the solution changes from weekend to weekend. That is why Brown's growing confidence matters more than a single finishing position. If Piastri is beginning to anticipate the car's behaviour instead of reacting to surprises, the next gains can arrive through cleaner qualifying laps, fewer compromised stints and more reliable race pace. McLaren needs those improvements to become routine, not occasional.
Singapore and Sepang Show Both the Progress and the Problems
Two recent weekends illustrate why Piastri's recovery is difficult to measure from the results column alone. At Sepang, he finished sixth after a strategy choice to begin in wet conditions on medium tyres forced an early stop. The decision compromised the race before he could fully demonstrate his pace. Even so, Piastri took encouragement from aspects of his own driving while admitting that McLaren still lacked the outright speed of the leaders.
Singapore brought a different collection of obstacles. Piastri's Sprint ended when he and Norris collided on the final lap while fighting for position. The incident removed a chance to score valuable points and created tension within a team already engaged in a tight constructors' battle. It was a reminder that a driver rebuilding confidence must still make decisions under intense pressure, sometimes against the person in the other McLaren.
The Grand Prix itself was more encouraging. Piastri finished fifth, one place behind Norris, despite a slow puncture requiring an additional pit stop. He recovered enough to pass Lewis Hamilton late in the race, demonstrating that the pace and racecraft were still there even if the weekend never offered a clean comparison. The official classification put Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli on the podium, with Norris fourth and Piastri fifth. That result showed McLaren collecting points but not matching the front three.
It is tempting to turn the Singapore finish into proof that Piastri has solved everything. That would overstate the evidence. He still faced an interrupted race and admitted the team did not have the speed to fight the leading cars. What Singapore offered was a more useful sign: the Australian remained composed after the Sprint setback, handled an unplanned stop and made a decisive late pass. Those are foundations for a stronger finish to the season, not guarantees of a return to winning form.
Austin Will Test Whether McLaren's Recovery Is Real
The next meaningful checkpoint is Austin, where Formula 1 returns on October 23–25. The Circuit of The Americas combines high-speed direction changes, heavy braking and slower traction zones, creating a broader examination of car balance than a single specialist circuit. Unlike recent Sprint visits, the 2026 United States Grand Prix uses a conventional weekend with three practice sessions before qualifying and Sunday's 56-lap race. That gives McLaren more time to compare setups and understand what each driver needs.
For Piastri, extra practice is an opportunity rather than a cure. If his difficulties stem partly from adapting his instincts to the MCL40, consecutive sessions can help him establish which changes genuinely work and which merely disguise a weakness for one lap. The key test will be whether he can find a qualifying rhythm without sacrificing tyre life and then reproduce it in the race. A strong Saturday would reduce the recovery work required on Sunday.
There is also a team-level reason for urgency. McLaren has been fighting a close constructors' contest with Red Bull while Ferrari and Mercedes remain major benchmarks. Brown has acknowledged that the leading teams' relative pace has moved around dramatically during 2026. McLaren cannot assume the same performance hierarchy will persist from Singapore to Texas. An upgrade may help, but a stronger package means little if only one driver can consistently unlock it.
Norris is still the clearer 2026 reference point inside McLaren. His two victories and qualifying advantage show what the car has been capable of on its better days. Piastri does not need to imitate Norris's style, and forcing identical approaches could be counterproductive. He needs an effective version of his own, built around the 2026 car's demands. Brown's comments suggest that process is gaining traction; Austin will supply the next public evidence.
McLaren's best outcome is not simply a Piastri podium in isolation. It is two drivers who can regularly qualify near the front, avoid costly intra-team incidents and turn every competitive weekend into a substantial points haul. That would make Brown's optimism tangible and help the team resist rivals with stronger recent momentum.
Brown's renewed belief in Piastri is an encouraging signal, but the numbers still show how much ground the Australian must recover. Two podiums, a clear qualifying deficit to Norris and an unpredictable MCL40 have made 2026 a tougher season than expected. The recent races nevertheless show resilience, technical learning and flashes of the form that made him a championship contender.
Austin will not settle the question on its own. It can, however, reveal whether Piastri's confidence is translating into repeatable speed—and whether McLaren can finally count on both cars to fight near the front.
