McLaren F1 boss warns Oscar Piastri that he must improve in Lando Norris battle

McLaren F1 boss Andrea Stella admits that Oscar Piastri needs to improve his form after a tough 2026 season so far.

The Australian driver was in a strong position to win the 2025 championship at the summer break, before his form fell away late season, resulting in him finishing third behind world champion and team-mate Lando Norris, as well as seeing a 100-point gap over Max Verstappen get overturned.

This season hasn't fared much better for the 25-year-old, who with the new rules and regulations hasn't been able to adapt to McLaren's new MCL40, leaving him seventh in the championship with 120 points.

Norris has 66 points more as he sits fourth in the standings and has shown great form of late with two wins in his last four races, including three podiums.

Piastri by contrast hasn't had a podium since the fourth race of the season in Miami, and finished eighth at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.

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Stella admits Piastri must improve

In an attempt to encourage Piastri to show more speed, Stella admitted that he must show improvements heading towards the final races of the season.

The McLaren team principal said in quotes carried by Autoracer: "Oscar needs to qualify better and try to stay closer to the podium. He needs to find even better harmony with the MCL40."

"When he drives while thinking too much about what he's doing, his decisions become slower.

"We still expect to see a very strong Oscar in the second half of the season."

Grosjean's faux pas

Stella's words come after F1 star Romain Grosjean caused a stir when he mistakenly misquoted McLaren CEO Zak Brown as saying Piastri was a slower driver compared to Norris.

Grosjean initially said: "I saw a statement from Zak Brown about Lando Norris' lap, he cut Oscar Piastri to pieces with a pair of scissors and a chainsaw right there."

"The harshness, the violence of that statement... The question was that Norris had done a good qualifying and he was asked how to explain the difference. Basically, he said that Lando was world champion and that he was better than Oscar."

In summary, what Brown had actually said was: "Oscar's been right there with him all weekend and just didn't get that same extra lap. We'll continue to look at it. He'll look at the data and probably do what we all did and go, 'wow, what a lap' as well."

Grosjean apologised for his error, writing on X: Today, I made a comment on Canal+ regarding Zak Brown’s comments about Oscar Piastri during an interview yesterday on F1TV, which I was part of.

"I completely misunderstood his words and want to apologise for that. I know how important it is to Zak and the entire McLaren team to respect their drivers and treat them fairly and equally.

"McLaren had the fastest car today and were unlucky with the VSC. I’m sure both Lando and Oscar will have another chance to fight for the win in Baku."

READ MORE: Norris takes down journalist in tense exchange: 'Did you even watch the race?'

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