Oscar Piastri criticises ‘random’ 2026 F1 racing after his first ‘proper’ battles at Miami GP

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Oscar Piastri didn’t have a lot of positives to take away from the new F1 regulation changes after the Miami Grand Prix.

Coming into the Miami Grand Prix last week, Piastri called the new F1 regulations refreshing, embracing the change in the sport.

McLaren worked on several upgrades over the last few weeks during the unplanned hiatus, but didn’t actually bring them to the Miami Grand Prix.

McLaren record a double podium behind Kimi Antonelli! When will their first win of 2026 come?

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Piastri managed to race well over the weekend, securing a P2 finish during the sprint, and a P3 finish during the race on Sunday.

But Oscar Piastri’s recent resurgence isn’t a credit to the new F1 regulation changes, as the Australian driver criticised these decisions.

READ MORE: Damon Hill claims Oscar Piastri got ‘very lucky’ during Miami Grand Prix qualifying

Oscar Piastri suggests racing is still ‘the same’ despite new F1 regulation changes

Speaking in the post-race press conference, Oscar Piastri was asked about the impact he felt the new regulations had made on the racing quality.

Surprisingly, Piastri noted that there wasn’t a tangible change in the quality of racing, criticising the random and uncontrolled aspects of the new regulations.

“I think reducing the harvest limit in qualifying has helped a bit. It has not fixed the problem, or all the problems. But it is helping with one. The races are basically, exactly the same.

“I think today was my first proper experience of overtaking people and having to defend and stuff like that. It’s pretty crazy. At one point, George, I could see in my dash that George was one second behind me and managed to overtake me by the end of that straight.

“It’s just a bit random. All the closing speeds are huge. Trying to anticipate that as the defending driver is incredibly tough to do.

“And as for the overtaking driver, I wasn’t that pleased with one of the moves George did, but I found myself almost doing the same move about five laps later just because the closing speed is enormous.

“From that side of things, not much has really changed. I think the collaboration from the FIA and F1 has been good, but there’s only so many things you can change with the hardware we have. Some changes in the future are still needed, for sure. How quickly we can do it is the big question.”

READ MORE: Juan Pablo Montoya says Oscar Piastri can make Mercedes ‘sacrifice’ George Russell or Kimi Antonelli

Some brilliant performances in South Beach! But who is your Driver of the Day for the Miami Grand Prix?

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Lando Norris says new regulation changes a ‘small step’ in the right direction

Speaking on the same subject, Piastri’s McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, expressed a similar sentiment, noting that there are aspects of the new regulations.

“It’s a small step in the right direction, but it’s not to the level that Formula 1 should still be at yet. I think we said yesterday in qualifying, if you go flat-out everywhere and you try pushing like you were in previous years, you still get penalised for it.

“You still can’t be flat out everywhere. It’s not about being as early on throttle everywhere. You should never get penalised for that kind of thing, and you still do. I don’t think you can fix that. You just have to get rid of the battery. So hopefully in a few years, that’s the case.”

Norris had expressed similar frustrations in the immediate aftermath of the Miami Grand Prix, suggesting that the frustration he has expressed for the new regulations hasn’t subsided.

While McLaren have barred Norris from being critical of the new regulations, they couldn’t stop the world champion from expressing his opinion.