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Oscar Piastri is now set to use F1’s upcoming 2026 summer break to hit the simulator at McLaren’s factory in his efforts to modify his driving style to better suit the MCL40.
The F1 paddock will break for the summer following this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest and will not regroup until the travelling circus descends on Zandvoort. F1 will hold what is primed to be the final Dutch Grand Prix for the foreseeable future on August 21-23.
Piastri will hope the second half of the 2026 F1 season starting from the Dutch GP proves to be far more enjoyable than the first half has been. The 25-year-old currently only ranks sixth in the F1 drivers’ standings with 92 points, due partly to his own woes and McLaren’s plight.
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Oscar Piastri plans to adapt his driving style to the MCL40’s needs in McLaren’s simulator
McLaren have not adapted as well to the 2026 F1 regulations as Piastri and teammate Lando Norris would have wanted. The MCL40 is arguably only the fourth-fastest car on the grid this year, which McLaren intend to improve soon with upgrades in Hungary and the Netherlands.
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The Woking natives have confirmed that they will debut a new floor and other aerodynamic upgrades at the Hungarian GP, along with trialling a Macarena rear wing in FP1. But Piastri is well aware that he also needs to improve and get more out of McLaren’s car after the break.
So, Auto Motor und Sport reports that Piastri now has ‘a few more’ simulator sessions lined up to help him adapt to McLaren’s 2026 car. The Australian and the papaya squad intend to find ways for him to change his driving style as he has been too smooth for this year’s rules.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella recently explained that Piastri’s problem with their car has been that the 2026 F1 regulations require a more aggressive driving style than the nine-time Grand Prix winner has. Piastri is also not the only driver limited by this “phenomenon”.
“This year’s car requires drivers to constantly attack,” Stella said, via Auto Motor und Sport.
“If you try to smoothen out your input, be clean, get the car to steer with the front tyres – which one would say is what you would expect – have a decent compromise between saving a bit in entry to have a good exit, it doesn’t pay off for lap time.
“We’re working hard with Oscar to help him incorporate the car’s characteristics more into his natural driving style.
“But we see this phenomenon with other teammates, as well, for example with [Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi] Antonelli and [George] Russell, or sometimes with [Ferrari’s Lewis] Hamilton and [Charles] Leclerc.”
Let us know your podium prediction for the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix! 🇭🇺
Piastri’s problem with his driving style not suiting the 2026 regulations was not immediately clear at the start of the year. Yet it has become an increasingly troublesome saga for the 25-year-old in more recent rounds, and it has even seen Norris take control at McLaren of late.
Norris has out-qualified Piastri for six of the last seven Grands Prix, with the latter having the better at the Monaco GP by 0.141 seconds for P7 and P8 on the grid. Norris also now edges Piastri 6-4 in their Grand Prix qualifying head-to-head duel and also 4-0 in Sprint Qualifying.
The McLaren head-to-head battle for race results is slightly skewed by various factors, with Piastri leading Norris 5-4 (excluding neither starting in China). Norris retired with a gearbox issue in Canada and a power unit failure in Monaco, and he would have likely finished ahead in Belgium had the Briton not taken his fourth battery and received a 10-place grid penalty.
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