Piastri insists McLaren still 'lacking performance' despite breakthrough Hungarian GP win

McLaren brought four performance-related upgrades to the weekend in Budapest, including a revised rear wing endplate, and a new floor and board, on their way to securing their third straight win at the Hungaroring thanks to a dominant performance from reigning world champion Norris.

The Briton used his superior pace - and a bit of a luck as Piastri controversially collided with back-marker Carlos Sainz - to get ahead of his teammate, and ultimately secured a 15-second winning margin on P2's Max Verstappen. The 26-year-old now sits fifth in the Drivers' standings on 128 points, 91 off leader Kimi Antonelli, while McLaren are P3 in the Constructors - trailing Mercedes by 159 points.

Suffering a gearbox failure with just 14 laps to go at the Hungaroring, Piastri sits in seventh in the Drivers', 17 points behind Verstappen in sixth, and while the team's strong showing in Hungary should give the 25-year-old encouragement of turning things around, neither he nor McLaren are getting ahead of themselves when it comes to chasing down Ferrari and Mercedes.

Echoing the thoughts of his teammate Norris, Piastri said in a McLaren Q&A: “We're very conscious and aware of where we sit. We're under no illusions that we're lacking some performance, and we really want to chase it. We've got good ideas on how we can do it. And I think everybody's hungry to get back to where we have been and taste that success again."

However, McLaren do have a history of mid-season turnarounds. In 2023, Piastri's debut season, the Woking team were fighting at the very back of the grid for most of the first half of the season, before game-changing upgrades at Spielberg and Silverstone suddenly saw them consistently fighting for podiums. By the end of the following year, McLaren were Constructors champions for the first time since 1998.

Asked whether McLaren's progress across the previous seasons has given him any confidence of another turnaround in 2026, Piastri said: "The past seasons do give me confidence. When you look at the previous experience of what we've been able to achieve as a team, and how we've been able to make progress through the year, it’s good.

“I feel like for me I've already seen it play out more than once. I think that's a real strength of the team. Yes, things are different, the cars are different, maybe the way we will make that step will look different. But we've made that step before, and I'm confident we can do it again," Piastri concluded.