Oscar Piastri may not have the results to show for his efforts in 2026, but the Australian believes the season has so far still been a valuable step forward in his development as a Formula 1 driver.
After helping McLaren secure the Constructors’ championship last year and pushing team-mate Lando Norris all the way to the Abu Dhabi finale in the drivers’ battle, Piastri entered the new campaign with high expectations.
Instead, the opening 11 rounds have brought a mixture of near-misses, podiums and frustrating setbacks.
The 25-year-old sits seventh in the championship with 102 points and is still searching for his first win of the season, but he insists the experience has not been wasted.
“I think the good results have been one thing, but I feel like I’ve also learned a lot about how I can improve myself as a driver, even if the results don’t always show it,” Piastri said.
That perspective has become one of the biggest positives in what has been a demanding first half of the year for both driver and team.
A season of ups and downs
McLaren currently occupies third place in the constructors’ standings on 220 points, trailing championship leaders Mercedes by 159 points and Ferrari by 87.
Reliability problems in Hungary and two DNSs have added to the challenge, while the team has struggled to match the benchmark it established during its triumphant 2025 campaign.
Piastri was candid when reflecting on the opening half of the season.
©McLaren
“Definitely up and down,” he stated. “I think our kind of general level of performance has not been quite where we want it to be, obviously. We’ve come close to some victories and had a few podiums, which has been good, but we obviously set the bar pretty high last year.
“We’ve also had a fair share of issues, whether it be difficult races or reliability problems. So definitely up and down.”
The Australian’s honesty underlines the contrast between McLaren’s recent dominance and the more inconsistent form it has shown this year.
Yet rather than dwelling on the disappointments, Piastri has focused on the progress hidden beneath the headline results.
Turning setbacks into strength
Piastri identified the Japanese and Miami Grands Prix as his standout weekends in terms of outright results, but he also pointed to the Austrian Grand Prix as a particularly important moment in his season.
At the Red Bull Ring he climbed from seventh on the grid to finish fourth, a significant response after a bruising weekend in Spain where he ended the race 58 seconds behind winner Lewis Hamilton and 35 seconds adrift of Norris.
“Results-wise, Japan and Miami were both good weekends,” Piastri said. “I think also Austria was a good one. The result was reasonable, with the P4, but also in terms of the turnaround from Barcelona and just how I felt the weekend went.
“Barcelona was definitely one of the more difficult weekends of the year, and I had to learn a lot from that one and improve quite a lot, and I feel like Austria was really good to bounce back and put some of that learning into place.”
That bounce-back performance is perhaps the clearest illustration of why Piastri remains optimistic.
While the podium count may be lower than expected, the McLaren charger believes the tougher weekends have accelerated his growth, giving him tools that could prove invaluable when the team returns to the front consistently.
For a driver still in only his fourth Formula 1 season, the message is unmistakably upbeat: the results may fluctuate, but the learning curve is still pointing sharply upward.
Read also: Norris ‘driving better than last year’ despite points deficit
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