McLaren driver Oscar Piastri feels that Red Bull’s Baku upgrade package has helped the team leapfrog the rest to become the class of the field alongside Mercedes. The 2026 F1 season has been an interesting one, where, unlike at the start of the year, when the German team appeared to have a massive advantage over everyone else, the gap has reduced significantly.
George Russell and Mercedes dominated the first race weekend of the season, where the car was in a completely different league compared to everyone else. However, with the help of ADUO, and the cost cap, rivals have had the opportunity to catch up.
The season has seen four different teams win races, with the most recent one being Red Bull, as Max Verstappen dominated the F1 Bahrain GP in Malaysia. McLaren, on the other hand, has been quite impressive as well, as the team has won in Zandvoort and Hungaroring.
The struggles in Baku and Malaysia have put the team on the back foot, and the sudden drop in form has been a surprise as well. Talking to the media, including Vision F1, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri revealed that whatever Red Bull brought for the car in Baku had been transformative, and it was now the class of the field alongside Mercedes. He said,
“Mercedes have been very strong the whole season, obviously, and I think Baku with the long straights there, it wasn’t a big surprise that they were so quick. Considering how many straights there were in Malaysia, it was surprising they weren’t faster. Whatever Red Bull put on their car in Baku clearly was big, because Baku kind of went under the radar for them with where they qualified and Max’s engine problem.”
He added,
“If he’d had started at the front in Baku, it would have obviously put George under a lot of pressure [not just] at the end of the race but for the whole race. And then obviously in Malaysia he was definitely the quickest car-and-driver combination. I definitely think the others around us are making progress. You know, us and Ferrari kind of seem to to and fro a little bit, but Mercedes have always been the class of the field, and I think Red Bull have kind of joined them in the last couple of weeks.”
Lando Norris is not entirely sure if McLaren would have the pace in Singapore
Before the slump in form in Baku, Lando Norris had won the race in Hungaroring, and Zandvoort. He was also dominating at Madring, before the ill-timed safety car ruined his race. Talking to the media, the McLaren driver was not entirely sure what to make of the drop in form for the car and whether the team can bounce back in Singapore. He said,
“Well, Baku, we weren’t necessarily too quick either. So, I wouldn’t say just a Malaysia thing. There’s certainly some aspects of Malaysia with the roughness of the tarmac that we think did play a part. So, it’s a good thing for us to see this weekend if some of the performance that we were missing there does come back. And Singapore is a track I’ve enjoyed and we’ve been pretty good here over the last few years.”
He added,
“So yeah, certainly a little bit of it is track layout, and the last couple of tracks have not been to the same strengths as what we’ve seen in Madrid and some of the other races,” he continued. “But all in all, we’ve still been underperforming to the level we need to and we want to be. We still need to do a better job, no matter what.”
The F1 Singapore GP is going to be a litmus test of sorts for Lando Norris and McLaren, as the driver would be hoping to have a much improved showing this weekend on a more conventional track.
