McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has pinpointed exactly why Oscar Piastri has struggled more than teammate Lando Norris with the 2026 F1 regulations. The Australian driver was a championship contender last season but has seen a noticeable drop in pace this year as McLaren's car hasn't delivered the same competitive package. Stella believes the issue isn't a lack of passion from Piastri, but rather a fundamental mismatch between his natural driving style and what the current machinery demands.

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The new 2026 regulations have been brutal on driver adaptation, with even Max Verstappen comparing races to Mario Kart earlier in the season. According to Stella, the car requires far more intensity and effort from the driver to extract lap time compared to 2025. While Norris has managed to adjust relatively quickly, Piastri has found the transition much tougher. The McLaren boss reckons he's figured out why, and it comes down to how each driver approaches a corner.

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Stella explained that Piastri's signature strength has always been his precision and smoothness behind the wheel. His data was textbook perfect, repeatable, and quick. But with this generation of car, that clean, calculated approach doesn't work anymore. The current machinery almost punishes you for being too delicate with it. Instead, drivers need to wrestle the car into submission and abandon the idea that smooth equals fast. It's a complete mindset shift that doesn't come naturally to someone built on Piastri's methodical approach.

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The head-to-head numbers tell the story. After 17 Grands Prix, Lando Norris has comprehensively outpaced Piastri in qualifying, races, and sprints. Stella has urged the Australian to drive more instinctively in the MCL40, but adapting to this new philosophy is taking time. It's a reminder that sometimes the most technically gifted drivers need the biggest adjustments when the rulebook changes. For Piastri, it's not about being faster than last year, it's about completely rewriting how he thinks about racing the car.

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