Source: Official Team Post via X
Karun Chandhok Identifies Oscar Piastri's Struggles with McLaren's 2026 Car
Karun Chandhok believes Oscar Piastri's difficulties with McLaren's 2026 car stem from the car's challenging nature and the new F1 regulations. Despite not being vastly outperformed by teammate Lando Norris, Piastri's struggles in races have become more pronounced.
Karun Chandhok has offered his insights on why McLaren's Oscar Piastri finds himself in a "tough place" this season, pointing to the challenges he's facing with the 2026 Formula 1 cars. Piastri, who was a title contender last year, has seen his performance dip, leaving him trailing behind the top six drivers in the standings. As the championship heads to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for round 19 of 23, Piastri sits in seventh place with 144 points, while his teammate Lando Norris holds sixth with 211 points.
Interestingly, while the gap in points might suggest otherwise, Piastri hasn't been significantly outperformed by Norris. In head-to-head battles, Norris leads Piastri 10-8 in race results and 11-7 in qualifying. However, the nuances of the 2026 cars seem to amplify Piastri's challenges, a sentiment echoed by Chandhok.
The 2026 McLaren MCL40, with its smaller wings and reduced downforce, has proven to be a handful, and Piastri has struggled to adapt. Chandhok noted that while Piastri's qualifying performance is just a whisker behind Norris, the minor deficits in qualifying translate into more significant gaps during the races. This snowball effect leaves Piastri mentally strained, especially when he sees Norris extracting more from the car.
Chandhok explained on Sky Sports F1 that the driver's mental challenge is compounded by the difficulty in translating team data into on-track performance, especially when a teammate is consistently delivering. Piastri's average qualifying times are only four hundredths of a second slower than Norris's, but in race conditions, this small difference becomes much larger lap after lap.
Piastri's issues are not new to him. After the Dutch Grand Prix earlier in the season, he acknowledged that his race pace was lacking compared to Norris, who won at Zandvoort while Piastri finished 32 seconds behind in sixth place. The braking challenges Piastri experienced during practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix further highlighted his ongoing struggle to adapt his driving style to the MCL40's tendencies.
Chandhok's observation that Piastri's struggles worsen in races rather than qualifying is a recurring theme for the young driver. The 2026 regulations have introduced a new set of challenges, and Piastri's inability to fully adapt has left him in a difficult position as McLaren waits for a chassis update slated for 2027.
The debate continues about what Piastri's career might have looked like if he had chosen to join Alpine over McLaren in 2023. However, given the performance struggles of Alpine's Pierre Gasly, it's likely Piastri would have faced similar challenges there. For now, Piastri's focus remains on overcoming his current hurdles as the season progresses.