Ruth Buscombe saw Oscar Piastri ‘suffer’ from tyre deg during his race sim at 2026 F1 Bahrain test

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Ruth Buscombe believes Red Bull driver Max Verstappen would beat McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in a race after studying the tyre data from F1’s 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain.

Many teams turned their attentions to long-run simulations this Thursday afternoon, as the conditions became more comparable with what they can expect in the actual Bahrain Grand Prix on April 12. Sakhir’s hot daytime conditions saw F1 begin racing at night there in 2014.

Buscombe crunched the numbers generated from the race simulations that Verstappen and Piastri produced on Thursday and believes the Red Bull pilot had the slight edge due to how McLaren used their Pirelli tyres. But Buscombe also saw some positive moments for Piastri.

Oscar Piastri was ‘suffering’ with high levels of tyre deg during the 2026 F1 Bahrain test

Former Ferrari strategist Buscombe forecasts that Piastri would have overtaken Verstappen on Lap 19 of the Bahrain GP and then carved a seven-second lead based on their data from Thursday’s test. But Verstappen would have reacted to Piastri and re-taken the lead on L50.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about F1’s 2026 engine and aero regulations

The biggest issue for Piastri during his race simulation was that his McLaren MCL40 seemed to use its Pirelli tyres more quickly than Verstappen’s Red Bull RB22. Despite him using a set of the hard C1 compound, Piastri appeared to be “suffering” with high levels of degradation.

“Interesting, so interesting,” Buscombe said on the F1 world feed (19/02, 15:43). “Oscar did look like he was suffering a bit on the first stint on C1s, [an] interesting start tyre choice for a virtual race [but it] doesn’t matter so much.

“But honestly, it looked like it was the cumulative degradation that made a difference. Actually, towards the end of his stints, you’re really hammering those tyres and it looked like tyre deg made the best of it.”

Buscombe concluded: “Today, it is a virtual win for sim racer legend, Max Verstappen.”

McLaren’s tyre deg problems add another challenge for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris

Ferrari’s innovative new rear wing sees Lewis Hamilton set the fourth fastest time. Can the Scuderia finish on top tomorrow?

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The headline story on day two of the second and final test in Bahrain was Ferrari’s rear wing flipping 180°, as Lewis Hamilton hit the track with the Scuderia’s radical solution to the new active aerodynamic tools created with the 2026 F1 regulations that have now replaced DRS.

But it was important for Piastri to sample a long run in the MCL40, for which McLaren have now changed their steering wheel design to help the Australian and teammate Lando Norris track their energy levels in real-time, especially with the issues he endured nursing his tyres.

If McLaren’s tyre deg is indeed worse than the likes of Red Bull, it will be an extra challenge for their drivers as they adapt to the new rules. Norris has looked exhausted after driving in McLaren’s 2026 car in Bahrain at times, due to the complexity of the new engine formulae.