Piastri fed up with 2026 F1 being decided by 'computers behaving or misbehaving'
Photo: Race Pictures
Updated: 20:41, 20 Jul
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Henry Eccles is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs, and features across the F1 calendar. Since joining in 2026, he has produced high-volume reporting on the sport’s biggest stories, alongside feature pieces including analysis and historical content.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri has yet again voiced concerns with F1's 2026 power unit regulations, arguing the way in which starting grids are being "decided by computers behaving or misbehaving" has been a "pretty crap way of going racing." The Aussie finished Sunday's Belgian GP in P5, with teammate Lando Norris in P7.
With the 2026 regulations implementing a 50/50 split between electrical power and internal combustion, drivers have attempted to get to grips with the complexities of energy deployment all with varying degrees of success.
For Piastri, the way in which so much of a driver's performance relies on the electrical element of the 2026 generation of cars "sucks," especially at energy-deprieved tracks such as Silverstone and Spa in recent weeks.
As a Mercedes customer team when it comes to their power unit, McLaren have admittedly lagged behind in their complete understanding of the 2026 engine rules, with Piastri and Norris having struggled with straight-line speed at Spa-Francorchamps this past weekend.
Piastri: F1 2026 a 'pretty crap way of going racing'
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Photo: Race Pictures
Speaking to media, including GPblog, after the Belgian GP, Piastri said: "It sucks. I can’t really say it any other way than that. I certainly wouldn’t have been the only person [to complain]. I know George [Russell] has had a lot of issues with that this weekend and maybe the last couple of weekends, and speaking to some others, it’s a similar story.
“When you’ve got qualifying grids decided by computers behaving or misbehaving, it’s a pretty crap way of going racing. So, here is obviously going to exaggerate it a lot and make it worse, but when you come in from a qualifying session, you look at all the corners and go, ‘I’m on par with my teammate, and I’m two tenths behind at the end of it’, it’s not a very nice feeling."
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed "all Mercedes engines" had straight-line speed issues when explaining the lead up to Russell's DNF at Spa, but Piastri believes the problems he experienced in the Ardennes hills are not specific to teams, rather a reflection of the regulations as a whole.
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“It’s not just happening with the HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, ed.] teams, I think it’s happening with other engine manufacturers as well, so it’s not an us-specific problem.
“But, the engines are so complicated. They are sensitive to everything, and even things you do on an out-lap can dictate what happens, so it’s it’s a very tricky way of going racing.”
Piastri puzzled after Leclerc goes unpunished at Belgian GP: 'If we think that's fine...'
Piastri also vented his frustration over his Lap 8 collision with Charles Leclerc at the Belgian GP. While he did not go as far as calling for a penalty on Leclerc, Piastri expressed surprise that he was not at least given a warning.
The 25-year-old believes the pair were unlucky to avoid an even bigger crash than the one that saw Piastri compromised on his way to his eventual P5 finish.
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Piastri said: "If we think that that's fine, it's one thing having touches like that, but even just the incentive of knowing that you can leave everyone the absolute bare minimum space and get away with it. It's not the nicest place to be."
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