You’ve got to “manhandle” McLaren’s F1 car to find its potential

Oscar Piastri says McLaren’s 2026 Formula 1 car has to be “manhandled” to be quick, describing the MCL40 as a car that punishes drivers the moment they are not at the limit.

The Australian driver has endured a difficult campaign after fighting for the title last year. He has two podiums in Japan and Miami, and sits seventh in the drivers’ standings with three races to go.

While speaking to the media in Brazil, Piastri was asked to explain what he has to do with the car on every lap.

“The best way to describe it is, I don’t even know if this is politically correct anymore, but you’ve got to manhandle the car a bit. It’s not a car that naturally does all the things you want, and it’s rare that there is a car that does everything that you want,” he said.

“But it just seems like this year’s car in particular, you really have to drive it at 100%, or what feels like about 110%, to be quick, firstly, but also to get the car to do more of what you want.”

The McLaren driver believes the car has real speed if it can be unlocked, but adds that finding its limit was the problem.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images

“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,” he explained.

He compared this year’s challenger with last year’s title-winning car.

“Often you could drive it a lot easier and be just as quick,” he said. “Whereas this year’s car, as soon as you’re not at 100%, you lose a lot of time very quickly.”

Piastri also admitted McLaren had lost its edge in development. He described the team’s rate of progress as “pretty reasonable”, but said that Red Bull had probably been the benchmark this season.

“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.

When asked whether he was still enjoying driving, Piastri was honest.

“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,” he said. “A bad day at a race track is often still better than a lot of good days in other walks of life.”

With three races remaining, Piastri is seventh in the drivers’ standings with 152 points. McLaren is fourth in the constructors’ standings with 398 points. Kimi Antonelli and Mercedes have already secured the drivers’ and constructors’ titles.

We want your opinion!

– The Motorsport.com Team