Kieran is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs and feature content across the F1 calendar. An NQJ-qualified journalist with more than a decade of experience, he has previously written for publications including MailOnline, the Manchester Evening News and the Eastern Daily Press.
Oscar Piastri is still unable to find answers behind his struggles at McLaren, as he described his underwhelming performance at the United States Grand Prix as the story of his year.
The Australian endured another difficult afternoon at the Circuit of The Americas in which he was most involved in a battle with Mercedes driver George Russell. The pair made slight contact at Turn 1, before Russell later ran off the track at Turn 12 and rejoined ahead of Piastri, leading to a five-second penalty which put him behind the Australian.
Although he kept Russell behind in the closing stages, Piastri admitted he was not sure why he struggled in Austin, in a performance that summed up his 2026 campaign.
Asked about the reason behind struggles in Austin, he replied: "I don't really know at the moment. Seemed like a bit of a a struggle in various different places, and I could kind of fix one place and not another. And there was just a bit of a a struggle, to be honest.
"So I think it kind of just points to how how tricky it is to get performance out of the car. You know, I could achieve something decent one lap, but then trying to repeat it was was very, very tough. So that's been the the story of the weekend and, in some ways, the story of the year."
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Piastri: McLaren upgrades not making car easier to drive
After the race, Piastri highlighted how it was clear that McLaren were still only the fourth best car behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Also, despite the upgrades introduced by McLaren, none of them are making the car any easier to drive.
"I don't think we're massively strong at the moment. Obviously, we had a few upgrades this weekend, which are doing what we expect. But, clearly, there's some teams around us, know, adding performance to the car. It looks like Mercedes are much more on top of their upgrades now.
"The Red Bull's obviously quick, and Ferrari has some upgrades as well. So, yeah, we're gonna keep pushing. But, none of these upgrades are really making the car easier to drive, which is kind of our our biggest problem."
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