McLaren’s Bahrain disappointment has left Oscar Piastri questioning whether the team is even remotely close to fighting for victory, after a weekend in which its lack of pace was exposed in uncomfortable fashion.
A sixth-place finish was a respectable salvage job for Piastri after starting from the pit lane following a change of tyre strategy, but it offered little consolation.
While the Australian driver relied on that well-timed switch to intermediates at the start to recover lost ground, the MCL40’s lack of performance in the race relative to its rivals was concerning.
Amid the event’s wet and chaotic early stages, Piastri immediately progressed into the points, eventually concluding his day among the top six. Yet even after extracting the maximum from his McLaren, he admitted the car simply did not have enough performance to threaten the leaders.
“On a personal note, I felt like I did a pretty good job today, which was good. Unfortunately we just weren’t quick enough to really do that much,” he said.
“I think the last Safety Car was a bit of a shame because I was catching Charles [Leclerc] pretty quick, but apart from that just a tricky afternoon.
“We didn’t quite make the right calls and ultimately we weren’t quick enough. So that was the biggest thing.”
McLaren’s uncomfortable reality
While the final Safety Car also did indeed deny Piastri a chance to put more pressure on Leclerc, strategy and circumstances were hardly the central issue.
The more troubling reality was that McLaren lacked the raw speed to dictate the race.
Red Bull, meanwhile, has seemingly taken another step forward since Baku, with Verstappen converting that progress into an impressive first win of 2026.
“I think Red Bull clearly here have been incredibly fast. It’s been the strongest they’ve been,” Piastri said.
“I think clearly whatever they put on the car in Baku has been a big step forward for them because last weekend without the bad qualifying they had, I mean Max nearly won the race anyway.
“And this weekend Max did win the race. So they’ve been very, very strong the last couple of weekends.”
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“I think us and Ferrari seem a little bit in a similar ballpark. But that ballpark is not fighting for race wins. So we need to improve,” he admitted.
“We know that. And we’ll try our best to make sure we try and improve.”
More straight-line speed woes for Norris
Lando Norris endured an even messier afternoon. The Briton was among those who committed to slick tyres for the start and paid a heavy price as the wet track punished the gamble. He then spent much of the race trying to recover the lost ground.
His frustration boiled over during the final Safety Car period. As the field slowed following George Russell’s retirement, Norris was caught out by the moment and was forced to take to the gravel at Turn 1 to avoid a massive collision with his own teammate, a move that dropped him out of the points.
“I just couldn’t see from my angle how much they’d literally just stopped on the racing line,” Norris said.
“I don’t really have anyone else to blame but myself. But there was nothing else I could do in that situation.”
Norris eventually fought his way back to ninth by passing Arvid Lindblad and Nico Hulkenberg. Yet his recovery could not disguise another McLaren weakness: straight-line speed.
“I have no idea. The team are trying, but I’m losing almost two tenths every lap. Two tenths a lap over 55 laps it’s just painful as hell,” the world champion said.
“So it’s making my life pretty damn difficult. But there’s also other things. Like today I could have done better. I can’t just have that. That’s not just an excuse.
“But there’s also things I can do better, and the team to do better as well.”
For McLaren, that combination of poor pace, compromised strategy and driver frustration made Bahrain more than a bad weekend. It exposed a widening gap to Red Bull – and left Piastri openly admitting that race wins are currently outside McLaren’s reach.
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