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McLaren racer Oscar Piastri has shared his take on the 2026 F1 car. Next season marks the dawn of a new chapter in terms of regulations in the pinnacle of motorsport.
From the next season onwards, Formula 1 challengers will go through significant changes compared to the current ground-effect era. The cars will be 30kg lighter to support wheel-to-wheel racing and overtaking.
The power unit is also undergoing a big redesign, in terms of increased battery power and a 50-50 split between the internal combustion and electrical power. On top of that, the cars will run on 100 percent sustainable fuels.
Oscar Piastri has been participating in Formula 1 since 2023 and has driven cars under the ongoing ground-effect era. He tried the 2026 car in the simulator for the first time, her shared his detailed take:
"I drove it quite recently. I think there’s still a lot of things to find out before we go racing next year. I think there’s still a lot of development ongoing, so I don’t want to comment too much on it. But it will certainly be very different from what we have now and what most of us have probably ever driven. But some things will be similar still."
In the ongoing season, Oscar Piastri is putting up a top fight for the drivers' world championship against his McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Piastri is leading with 284 points in comparison to Norris' 275.
Oscar's opinion on fine-tuning the 2026 cars
As Oscar Piastri has shared his opinion on the 2026 F1 car, he also took the time to discuss the need for fine-tuning.
"I don’t know if it’s necessarily tricky, it’s just different in a lot of ways. Yes, I think there are definitely things that I think as a sport we can fine-tune a bit before we go racing, but I think it will mainly be different than what we have now. I think it is still capable of putting on a very entertaining sport and a competitive sport, but I think it will look quite different."
The turbo-hybrid era (2014-21) of the sport was majorly dominated by the Mercedes Formula 1 team. In the current era, after the early domination by Red Bull and Max Verstappen, McLaren has finally caught up this year.
Considering all of this, it is going to be exciting to see which team will set the early pace in 2026.
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