Zak Brown says Oscar Piastri is “back to the driver I know” after Singapore encouraging signs

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

McLaren CEO Zak Brown said he believes Oscar Piastri is “back to the driver I know” following signs of improving confidence in his driving after a challenging portion of the 2026 season. Speaking at a Friday press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix, Brown framed Piastri’s progress as part of a wider picture of how Formula 1’s current-generation cars have shuffled performance across the grid.

Brown acknowledged that Piastri has struggled to consistently extract the level of pace expected from him this year, despite finishing third in the Drivers’ Championship last season. He noted that while the Australian has secured two podium finishes in 2026, he has found it difficult to match team mate Lando Norris, who has two Grand Prix wins and has outqualified Piastri at 11 of the 17 rounds held at the time of Brown’s remarks.

In Brown’s view, the uneven adaptation shown across the field reflects how complex the cars are. He pointed to examples including Lewis Hamilton’s form relative to Ferrari and George Russell’s performance compared to earlier results with Kimi Antonelli, arguing that different drivers and teams have adjusted at different rates. “That’s moved around. I think these cars are so complex. Some have adapted a little bit quicker than others, but I’m liking what I’m seeing out of Oscar,” Brown said.

Brown said the change he is noticing is mental and procedural as much as it is technical. “He’s feeling more confident and on top of things. I like where both our drivers are now,” he added, tying his optimism to Piastri’s growing ability to get on top of the MCL40.

The driver context behind those comments has centred on adapting Piastri’s natural driving style to the demands of McLaren’s MCL40. Team Principal Andrea Stella previously explained that Piastri has been unable to drive through “pure instinct” in certain conditions, an issue that has made his year-to-year transition more complicated than it might have been in a more stable technical environment.

Piastri himself addressed the challenge ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, describing how solutions have not been straightforward. “A lot of the things that have worked for me previously don’t really seem to work this year, so it’s about trying to find different things that do work,” he said. “I’m making some progress on that but it’s not as simple as you find one direction and that just works for you all the time. You need to constantly adapt and change things.”

Brown’s confidence also comes as McLaren sees evidence of incremental improvement through the most recent run of races. Piastri scored sixth at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia after what McLaren described as a difficult afternoon in Sepang, where a decision to start on medium tyres in wet conditions led to an early pit stop. Despite the result, Piastri said he was encouraged by his own performance while acknowledging McLaren still had work to do to close the gap to rivals.

At the Singapore Grand Prix, Piastri finished fifth, but his weekend was shaped by setbacks. He retired from Saturday’s Sprint after a collision with Norris on the final lap, then faced a slow puncture on Sunday that forced an unscheduled pit stop. Reflecting on the P5, Piastri said the car felt “pretty reasonable,” but suggested they “just didn’t quite have enough pace,” adding that they were unable to match the performance of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc and that Kimi was also quicker.

As the season moves into its final stages, Brown said McLaren’s goal remains to arrive at each event with an opportunity to win. “The target is to come into every weekend with the chance to win,” he said. “We feel more on top of things than we have for the past couple of races, and we won the last couple of races prior to that,” he added, while also acknowledging that the level of competitiveness across the grid continues to rise quickly. “Our goal is to try to come to each race weekend and win, but that’s easier said than done.”