Oscar Piastri's 2026 campaign has gone from competitive to concerning in a matter of months. Last year, he finished just 13 points behind teammate Lando Norris in the championship with their head-to-head results sitting at 28-27 in the Briton's favour. Fast forward to halfway through this season and Piastri's now trailing by 55 points, with Norris winning the intra-team battle 22-7. It's a dramatic swing that's left plenty of people scratching their heads.

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Carlos Sainz reckons he's figured it out though. The Spanish driver points to the fundamental regulation changes for 2026 as the key culprit. The new cars are lighter and smaller, which sounds good in theory, but they've lost around 30 percent of their downforce and the battery now accounts for nearly half the power output. That's a massive shift from what drivers were used to, and not everyone's adapting at the same pace. Piastri's even complained about the randomness of the batteries and the reduction in grip, but those are problems every driver on the grid is dealing with.

What's particularly interesting is that similar swaps have happened at other top teams. At Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton were getting beaten by their teammates in 2025, but now Antonelli's dominating Russell while Hamilton has jumped ahead of Charles Leclerc at Ferrari. Even Max Verstappen's not as dominant over his teammate anymore. When the fundamental concept of a car changes, the competitive picture can completely flip.

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Sainz explained to Motorsport.com that it all comes down to adaptation. Some drivers feel uncomfortable from the very first lap in a car that doesn't suit their style, and it takes time to find a way around that. The issue is that Piastri might've felt at home in the old machinery but finds the 2026 concept genuinely tricky to work with. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has noted that Piastri can't drive instinctively in these cars, costing him a couple of tenths per lap.

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The worrying part for Piastri is the trend seems to be getting worse rather than better. He was over half a minute down to Norris at Zandvoort, and in Hungary he was 13 seconds behind before a gearbox failure ended his race. These cars aren't going anywhere either, sticking around until at least 2030. So either Piastri finds a way to adapt quickly, or McLaren might have to make some tough calls about their driver hierarchy for the title fight.

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