Oscar Piastri believes the pecking order at this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix will not definitively decide who succeeds in the first season of F1’s new rules era.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella said after pre-season testing in Bahrain that Mercedes and Ferrari — the bookmakers’ favourites — are a “step ahead” of McLaren and Red Bull. McLaren head into the weekend as defending two-time constructors’ champions, with team-mate Lando Norris the reigning drivers’ champion who won last year’s season opener in Melbourne.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 on the eve of his home race at Albert Park, Piastri said: “I think we’re in the mix at the moment. We’ll find out for sure soon enough, but I don’t think we’re quite in the position we were 12 months ago where we felt like we were the strongest.
“I think this season is not going to be won by who’s quickest, or who’s the best, at the first race. There’s going to be a lot of development, a lot of learning, especially for us as drivers, and whoever can get on top of that the quickest in what is a very long season is going to end up on top in the long run.”
Piastri backed McLaren’s ability to close any early gap. “I think every time there’s a regulation reset there are a few different pathways you can go down and I think we’ve probably seen a few teams go down different pathways. So it’s going to be interesting to see which one ends up being the best. If there’s one thing I do know, it’s just how competent our team is and especially our engineering team.
“We’ve shown over the last two or three years just how quickly we can get things back on track and how quickly we can turn things around. So I think, no matter what rules we get thrown at us, I think we’ll get there.”
Piastri is chasing a first home podium in Melbourne after spinning in the rain there last year.
Melbourne will mark the competitive debut of the sport’s all-new 2026 cars and engines, which shift to a near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power. A three-fold increase in electrical energy versus 2025 raises fresh demands on how drivers harvest and deploy battery charge across a lap — demands expected to vary significantly between circuits.
“Different circuits are going to be more challenging with these cars, especially in terms of how you kind of manage the power unit and the battery charge and stuff like that,” Piastri said. “Albert Park features fewer heavy braking zones than Bahrain, for instance, so we’ll see what Melbourne’s like, but it’s definitely going to be a complicated one way or another.”
Piastri’s message: McLaren may not be exactly where they were a year ago, but with development and a competent engineering group, they expect to fight back over the course of the season.