Piastri ‘back to the driver I know’ – Brown encouraged by McLaren driver’s growing confidence

McLaren CEO Zak Brown is feeling confident that Oscar Piastri is back to the driver he knows following a tricky start to the season.

Piastri has faced a challenging 2026 so far, struggling to consistently extract performance from the new generation of cars after finishing third in the Drivers' Championship last season.

The Australian has secured two podium finishes this year, but has found himself unable to match the pace of team mate Lando Norris, who has claimed two Grand Prix victories and outqualified him at 11 of the 17 rounds so far.

However, following that difficult spell Brown believes there are encouraging signs that Piastri is beginning to reclaim his confidence.

Asked in Friday's press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix about whether the 25-year-old was returning to the driver he knew, Brown responded: “I think he is.

“I think we've seen with these cars, it's kind of mixed up the field a little bit, right? Lewis [Hamilton] is getting the better out of the Ferrari right now, George [Russell] got more out of the car last year than Kimi [Antonelli].

“That’s moved around. I think these cars are so complex. Some have adapted a little bit quicker than others, but I’m liking what I’m seeing out of Oscar.

“He’s feeling more confident and on top of things. I like where both our drivers are now.”

Piastri’s difficulties this season have largely centred on adapting his natural driving style to the demands of the MCL40, with McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella previously explaining that the Australian has been unable to drive through “pure instinct” in certain conditions.

Ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Piastri acknowledged that finding a solution has been far from straightforward, but praised the team’s efforts to help him improve.

“A lot of the things that have worked for me previously don’t really seem to work this year, so it’s about trying to find different things that do work,” he explained.

“I’m making some progress on that but it’s not as simple as you find one direction and that just works for you all the time. You need to constantly adapt and change things.”

At the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Piastri finished sixth following a difficult afternoon in Sepang, where a decision to start on medium tyres in wet conditions forced him into an early pit stop.

Despite that result, the nine-time race winner was encouraged by his own performance, although he admitted that McLaren still had work to do to close the gap to their rivals.

Piastri subsequently finished fifth at the Singapore Grand Prix, although his weekend proved eventful, with the Australian retiring from Saturday’s Sprint following a collision with team mate Norris on the final lap, before a slow puncture on Sunday forced him into an unscheduled pit stop.

Reflecting on that P5 performance, having overtaken Hamilton on the final lap, Piastri said: “It felt pretty reasonable I would say. I think we just didn’t quite have enough pace.

“We couldn’t go with Max [Verstappen] and Charles [Leclerc]. I think Kimi was a little bit quicker than us as well. There wasn’t really too much we could do other than where we ended up.”

With the season progressing into its final stages, Brown remains hopeful that McLaren can build on their recent progress, although he acknowledged the challenge posed by an increasingly competitive field.

“The target is to come into every weekend with the chance to win,” he explained.

“We feel more on top of things than we have for the past couple of races, and we won the last couple of races prior to that.

“It shows how competitive the sport is and how quickly the top four teams, the whole grid for that matter, is moving around in levels of competitiveness.

“Our goal is to try to come to each race weekend and win, but that’s easier said than done.”