Oscar Piastri explains ‘disciplined’ approach to tricky F1 2026 cars after Suzuka P3

Oscar Piastri said that the F1 2026 cars require some “interesting things”, and so staying “disciplined” helped him on his way to third on the grid for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Piastri did say that he was guilty of trying too hard on his “bit of a mess” final Q3 lap, but finds it “impossible” to know with these cars how much more time he actually could have unlocked.

Oscar Piastri explains disciplined approach to F1 2026 cars

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On the evidence of final practice, Mercedes were expected to waltz to another front-row lockout. However, McLaren and Ferrari made life difficult.

Ultimately, Kimi Antonelli did head a Mercedes one-two from George Russell. Piastri impressed to secure third on the grid.

Appearing alongside Antonelli and Russell in the post-qualifying press conference, Piastri was asked how clean of a session that was for him.

“I think it was pretty well executed. I think the final lap of Q3 was a bit of a mess, but apart from that, I think we built into things well.

“I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted from the car after FP3 and I think we did a good job of achieving that, and then also how you have to drive. You’ve got to do some interesting things, so I think just staying disciplined on that worked well and I’m happy to end up where we are.

“I think everyone seemed to chop and change a bit through qualifying. We didn’t look great in Q1 and then Q2 we came alive and managed to hold that pace. I thought the Ferraris were going to be on a par at one point, so it was all a bit of a mixed bag, but happy to end up third.”

Having called his final Q3 run messy, Piastri was asked if he could have been closer to the Mercedes pair with a cleaner lap.

“Maybe a tiny bit, but it’s always impossible to know.

“I think especially with these cars, it’s very easy to think you’re going faster and doing the right thing, and you end up going slower because the engine doesn’t like it.

“So, it’s a tricky balance, but I think it was pretty close to what we could have done.

He added: “It’s nice to be closer. I think we’re learning more and more about the car and about the power unit every weekend.

“I think this weekend in Suzuka, let’s say being slower in the esses than Mercedes is not necessarily a bad thing, which is weird to say. But yeah, I think we were saved a little bit by that.

“So, I think we’ve been more competitive in general.

“But we’re under no illusion, we’ve still got a pretty big gap to fill.”

As Piastri alluded to, the F1 2026 cars mean a different formula for qualifying success.

Not necessarily about ultimate speed on the ragged edge anymore, drivers need to nail their battery harvesting and recharge.

“I think I just tried too hard,” said Piastri, as he returned to his Q3 experience, “tried to push a bit much and the rear end said no a few times.

“But it is difficult to know because sometimes you feel like you do a better lap and you go faster through the corners and you run into some problems with deployment. So, it’s not always that easy to understand why you make jumps in lap time and stuff like that.

“But yes, in my case, just trying too hard.”

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At the third attempt, Piastri will look to make his first grand prix start of the season on Sunday at Suzuka.

He crashed out on his lap to the grid in Melbourne, while in China, neither McLaren MCL40 took the start, due to separate issues related to the Mercedes power unit battery.

Piastri was asked whether he feels on the back foot in terms of racing knowledge with these F1 2026 cars.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella does believe that Piastri is on the back foot with his lack of F1 2026 racing experience.

“I mean, not necessarily,” he said, “but you don’t know what you don’t know until you’re in the situation.

“I’ve tried to learn as much as I can from watching the races and even through practice.

“There have been some interesting moments with cars at different speeds in different parts of the track. I overtook someone into Degner 1 yesterday, which was different.

“But yeah, you’re learning all the time and I think just the level of awareness you need is very high.

“But I think ultimately pace is going to be the thing that decides your result, and the start as well. Well, maybe not the start if it’s these guys around you, but yeah, we’ll see what we can do.”

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