Oscar Piastri has 'no magic answers' to solve crucial McLaren question

Oscar Piastri believes there are "no magic answers" to solve the issues McLaren is facing with its MCL40 F1 car this season. 

The reigning constructors' champions are currently third in the standings in 2025, and are just seven points ahead of a resurgent Red Bull, having also lost ground on Ferrari in secod place over recent races. 

McLaren last delivered a big upgrade at the Hungarian GP in July, with this initially prompting an upturn in form as Lando Norris won in both Hungary and the Netherlands before being denied a third win in four races in Spain due to an unluckily timed virtual safety car. 

However, across the recent triple-header, McLaren slipped back to fourth-fastest behind Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari, with Norris being very vocal that the car was tricky to drive and required immense input to get it to do what the drivers required around a lap. 

Team boss Andrea Stella has promised that fresh upgrades are coming at the back-end of the season in a bid to increase learning for the 2027 MCL41 machine, but in terms of finding instant solutions for the rest of 2026, Piastri feels there are "no magic answers."

"I think in the short term, it's probably as good as it's going to get," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365.

"But naturally, when you start giving yourself evidence of being able to drive a bit differently and in ways that aren't that natural, they slowly become more natural. 

"So I think Malaysia was another good step forward in terms of understanding what I need to do and not having to work quite so hard to get there, and getting there a little bit more intuitively and without as much effort, which is ultimately the place I want to get to in this part of the year. 

"And to fundamentally bring the car a bit closer to where I would like it to be, I don't think we're going to have any magic answers this year. 

"The cars themselves are very different. The tyres are quite different as well, so that's not going to change anytime soon."

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Piastri's own improvement

Addressing his own upturn in performance after a poor season in which he has not claimed a podium in 14 races since third in the Miami GP, Piastri pointed to his pace at certain points of the recent races in Baku and Sepang as evidence he was slowly making the progress required.

"But I definitely feel like the last two weekends [in Azerbaijan and Sepang], on a personal level, I've been performing much better," he added.

"In Baku, for the first stint of the race, I was very strong. The middle stint in Malaysia was very strong. 

"So I feel like on a personal level, I'm definitely making progress. But it's still not as comfortable as I would like."