McLaren Admits Piastri’s Problem

0:00What are you gonna do tonight? Let it be, what you're actually doing tonight Let it be, what you're actually doing tonight Take it away, Jordan Come on, come on, let's go Pop it down, all go out of it It's easy, take off all the lines We have all good to be It's finally off on the road, catch it all Be safe, bye, we're out, take one again Hi, my band Max here, Barry's here too Hello!

1:00And now the Premier League is back, Barry, meaning we're providing incredibly astute analysis Three times a week, wherever you get your podcasts Barry, with the remaining 10 seconds of this ad, can you provide some astute analysis? I think our solar going to win the Premier League And there you are for more hot takes like that Watch your listen to football weekly, wherever you get your podcasts Just two wheels, two pedals and you At Bikes Online, we share your passion for everything cycling Whatever bike you're looking for from mountains to road, either pedal powered or electric We've got what you want ready for super fast delivery Quality gear at prices you won't find in your average bike shop All bikes are pro-built and tuned before shipping to get you riding quickly If you find a better deal, we'll beat it by 5% Shop now at bikesonline.com and ride more for less Here's a tip for you, there's a podcast out there with fans waiting to be your next customer They tune in every week, they trust the host And that host wants to talk about brands like yours in their own words to their audience The problem is, you just haven't been introduced yet

2:02We're Acast where that introduction happens As the world's largest podcast marketplace We let you browse shows, see who's listening, and book host-read sponsorships or run your own ads all from one platform Transparent pricing, real-time data, complete control Start advertising on podcasts by visiting acast.com slash advertise Oscar Piazdries, now 66 points behind Lando Norris And is basically having a miserable season And now his boss has admitted that there is a problem Yes, that sounds almost ridiculous for a Formula One driver Especially for someone with a caliber like the Australian But team principal Andreas Dullar has now come out and said that yes, there is an issue That Oscar still is having to think about how to drive his car So, to judge how much progress he's making, I want to ask you all three questions Can Oscar produce competitive speed and how often can he reach it And how much of that performance becomes points on Sunday

3:03Because he can do stuff with this car Sometimes, you know, qualifying P3 in Monza, that's not too bad But then qualifying P7 in Madrid, that's not great The speed is there, but him being able to trust that speed every single time he goes out qualifying That's a whole other topic to chew over and get stuck in your teeth And McLaren's own explanation leaves some responsibility on their doorstep So you can't just say, oh, it's all Oscar's fault and that's the end of that then Because them simply helping Oscar get over this hurdle for the billion of time That only can take them so far because their own efforts or lack their orable, their own fallables And their own foibles make it so that means it's even harder for Oscar to be able to convert it when he has the speed And the same can easily be said for Lando Norris Who maybe just maybe has a snifter of getting on to the overall day-as for 2026 When at the beginning of the year he probably had no hope of getting there Andreas seemed plenty of weekends when McLaren had admitted to just that

4:04It's been happening a lot the last couple of years and it just feels like as some people in the comments have said to me recently You can take the team out of the midfield but you can't take the midfield out of the team So the quote This week, Team Principal Andreas Della said Oscar was still driving and thinking Consciously working through what the car needs and that doing so slowed decisions down and ultimately cost lap time Very specific, wouldn't you say, however? It's not as simple as you clicking off this video and just saying, oh, it's just a case of Oscar over thinking Everything and all coast closed then because for starters, Stella already explained a similar difficulty back around the time of Zandvoid There, he called it a purely technical issue which went against any illusions that this was a psychological roadblock But then you're getting this around the grid saying that, oh, maybe this is a psychological roadblock and that he's thinking too much A more adaptation-based issue when the driver's looking for grip but the grip's simply not there And it's something that Stella even touched upon back in the days of Austin, Mexico last year When Oscar was desperately trying to hold on to his championship hopes and then the revelation came that

5:08Oh, maybe his smooth driving style isn't helping him out and he needs to be a bit more aggressive This is something that the 2026 regulations is not presenting to us as a brand new oddity This is a trend with this McLaren overall concept However, I do think the MCL 40 is bringing this vulnerability up towards our attention more often than it was for the MCL 39 And if that's the case, does Oscar have a flying hope in hell of a chance to try and overcome the odds when the grip's simply not there and you can just out drive the car? Is this smoother driving style working against him more consistently now? And I would say the grid has made that a little bit harder to ignore but even though I appreciate that And if you're interested in making it clear that it is a group effort to try and improve the history Just offering out another diagnosis yet more word salad isn't going to be solving Oscar's problem in being 7th place in the championship They need to act McLaren because actions speak louder than words And Andrea says a lot of words Eventually all of this talk has to produce something that can give Oscar that little push to at least try and get more consistent results

6:14And the very least a third podium on his docket Right now it's looking like Oscar's about to have his least satisfying season ever because back in 2023 he was rookie yet Then he was at least able to get too fast to slap so far he's had number of those They need better weekends overall and here's the awkward chestnut within all of this because McLaren have already pointed to moments when we could actually see that something was happening Back in early July still appraised Oscar's Austrian people Him saying that Oscar and he had worked out clues to driving when grip was low and that Oscar had applied that work in practice So the team had already seen and responded the problem before the summer break so okay McLaren How can you turn that into something that Oscar can reliably repeat them And I think us Piazzerie fans we can look to the Austrian Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix and have some hopes and reasons for being optimistic Yet at the same time those two circuits just remind us that the following races when it's not so good these same queries just keep coming back to the back of our minds

7:16It's like why are we repeating the same thing over and over again? Why can't Oscar just have a gosh darn consistent period? And you might be also asking how can somebody that's quick end up overthinking something that he's been trained to well drive I mean for starters he's quote about unlearning things from the past 15 years didn't help but I would say that The best example I can think of right now is switching over from one computer mouse to another As in you're used to the overall sensitivity of the mouse and you can get it from point A to point B without an issue But it either you have to change mice or somebody is tweaked with your settings and then when you move and you think it's doing one thing and then something that's like whoa It's gonna take some time for you to be able to adapt and even then when you're starting to get it down and get the hang of it You're still gonna have moments when it's just like you're not gonna have as smooth of a time as you might have done when you just had your original god damn mouse And you might be thinking well what's the big deal with a computer mouse? It's fine for that kind of stuff because you're not having to find one or two tents with every single click like you are trying to do so in a formula one car

8:18Because in those moments a tent or two can cost you a place or two and as Oscar has shown us him trying to fight back from those positions is not exactly an easy order now is it? And to be fair these are new regulations so the reference points have moved for everyone but that creates a plausible setting for adaptation being a thorny subject Hi, but thanks here Barry's here too Hello and now the Premier League is back Barry Mini with us providing incredibly astute analysis three times a week wherever you get your podcasts Barry with the remaining 10 seconds of this ever can you provide some astute analysis I think are still going to win the Premier League And there you are for more hot tanks like that watch your listen to football weekly wherever you get your podcasts Whatever bike you're looking for from mountain to road either pedal powered or electric we've got what you want ready for super fast delivery Quality gear at prices you won't find in your average bike shop like so online dot com ride more for less And being teammates makes the comparison useful too even though it doesn't guarantee identical setups or circumstances every weekend and McLaren claim that they are taking action

9:22Because after monster still described using an approach with Oscar that the team had previously used with lando last year Though hey at the very least they are recalling things that they had to do with the current world champion to solve his own quantities instead of just waiting for Oscar to solve it on his own and then just hoping for the best And if you're a lander fan you might be immediately clamoring on the edge of your screens and shouting of course you're talking about Canada Well, correct a mundo right there. There McLaren offered a particular upgrade in regards to suspension to try and offer the drones a little bit more fuel It didn't necessarily make the car overall a quicker package because it was already quite a quick package But it just gave them a little bit more sensation with what they were experiencing with the steering wheel And this was not a mandatory option because lando took the option whereas Oscar did not and with hindsight being right there You can easily say that that might have been a championship defining moment And Oscar decided to issue that particular upgrade for the sake of well he was quite happy with what he already had

10:26He preferred consistency over a brand new shiny thing might that had been his undoing? Well, I mean at this point it's it's spanner territory It's a good example of the team reaching out for an issue that lando had and there was a fix and it immediately transformed his season And now it's Oscar's connection with the car that needs attention Maybe a certain little tweak that might just seem completely innocuous or absolutely insignificant could absolutely revolutionize a driver's season You might also want to point out that well Liam Lawson had the same thing over at VCarbon that I think just saved his entire career Let alone give him championship prospects In truth, I don't know what McLaren can do to help out Oscar in terms of mechanical grip because I'm not a mechanic or an engineer But at the very least McLaren are sounding like they are being constructive with the quandary that Piaestry is having But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm about to have a golden star like Madame Dragunner or anything like that No, no, no, no, because we've got to mention that other chestnut regarding speed

11:27Because around the Italian Grand Prix a very infamous circuit for Oscar as we all know by now And I won't mention again, he can qualify well And I know that the lando fans out there who were praising my mention to Canada and I was screaming into your headset saying No, no, Oscar wasn't fossil and lando re-sabotos this crap That's not the point here, Oscar still had the speed to at least attempt to get onto the second row Yes, he did lock a break when lando arrived not too far behind him but you think that kind of chicainery pun intended with washit McLaren, hym sabotaging like that? No It's still a strong reminder that he can put this McLaren close to the front It's just a shame that impeding cost him three places with Liam Lawson and all And that same penalty brings us straight back to the third question at the top of the video A strong lap had earned a starting position that he couldn't keep Whatever progress had happened in finding speed the weekend lost something before the lights went out Progress, I think here, has to survive the whole weekend before it can lead into something more tangible and sustainable

12:32Add at Monza some of it did Because even with those maladies and hym starting in sixth place he did finish one place higher, P5 And after a very thrilling battle with lando Norris throughout all of the chicains that we sort of saw back in 2024 Yes, it was Oscar who conceded a position and lando moved up a place But in that moment Stella looked at all of that and after getting on the radio and telling Oscar specifically to be keeping it clean He did conclude that the overall pace of his drivers was pretty much one and the same He couldn't say that one driver was better than the other one And yes, you can easily argue that Monza's slipstream debate absolutely complicates any pure racing comparison between two drivers But it just still stands to reason that all of that was said still a solid race for Oscar and it was still a good sign that there were green shoots on the horizon But then we get to the moment where we completely and lament with ourselves that yes, Monza was great But just one week later he asked to eat qualified seventh nearly half a second behind lando who took an absolutely remarkable and very unexpected pole position from Kimi Antonelli

13:40I'm not going to sugarcoded 0.470 seconds difference in this economy that that that's really really big And Oscar was direct about his overall assessment of that session he simply said it was not good enough So his own words after qualifying stop me or you or anyone else using the Clarence adaptation explanation as something you can hold up as an excuse for every single time he has of well bad time We also can't calculate how much of that gap came from just adaptation alone but the gap is there and it met that five cars separated them on Sunday And with him ultimately tangling with George Russell at the start the resulting damage put an end to any hopes of him trying to nab a cheeky top five finish So hey that was the least of my Clarence woes around the mebring year The main mission for the Piazri right now is to try and make sure that the P3s and the P7s are maybe P4s or 6s or P5s consistently as in you're still in the same ballpark of figures instead of thinking oh yeah I'm in the second row

14:40No I'm in the fourth row what you're completely all over the place try and make the competitive version of yourself Oscar easier to repeat Because yes that Sunday around Madrid with that resulting damage meant Piazri finished eight not aided either by an unhelpful virtual safety car and time spent in traffic The nature of track making impossible pass and it meant that he had spent most of the second half of the race behind the Alpine of Franco Colopinto who in regular circumstances should have been relatively easy to pass But then you might be getting the foam of doubt I'm saying well if you had an undamaged car then surely he would have enabled to overtake Franco That is certainly up for debate of course but given the nature of that circuit where we saw only four overtakes it doesn't really the nature of that track give you much hope that he would have been able to come roaring back to maybe finishing higher than where he started But I think calling that whole race a case of bad luck would be a little bit too easy because he was already starting sevens that put pay to many options that he might have had in his back pocket Because well it was just a case of maybe trying to survive the further down you start a race the more people you're having to deal with and overtake and more likely you are going to face a little bit of a crash yet

15:50Like Carlos science did from P20 when he clatted into the side of Yuki Sonoda And this is the part of the video where we have to go back to McLaren and say well they have to share some responsibility for this too because go back to the Dutch Grand Prix Because Oscar had done what he needed to do and passed George Russell on track but then you guessed it a slow stop put pay to all of that and he ended up right back behind the British Mercedes driver Yes the T.P explicitly held his hand up and accepted that loss as the team's responsibility not the drivers Oscar had done the overtaking only for the stop to undo it and it was something they repeated with Lando just two rounds later And I think it goes to show that there isn't a driving style adjustment out there in the world that can make the pit crew complete their work with that issue And Andrea also described that the second set of hard tires that Oscar went on to did not correlate with the performance that they saw from their data centers that Oscar had during the first stint of hard tires And I think if you couple those points together I think we get to the root cause of what Oscar needs right now in terms of help

16:53Because yes him being able to adapt better to the MCL 40 was all very well and good But if the team simply can't get their act together and make sure that they can have consistently fast stops Because if you look to the fastest pit stops right now McLaren are not there at all then that is going to completely unravel all the hard work that Oscar had done to try and make some progress with this very tricky car And if you put the shoe on the other foot better pit work will not necessarily make his qualifying performance that little bit better because well doesn't really matter in regards to the pit crew It's more with the strategist and timing and all that stuff but that's for another video So I think all of that makes it that means it's not PS3's problem alone and it means that you just can't let McLaren off the hook They have to be held to account here And it's also why I wouldn't make Lando Norris the flawless alternative of the story because well just look to the madrim That is own horrible weekend but not through his own fault because as I touched upon he just hit Kimi Antonelli for Paul surprising even himself

17:54And was even able to pull out a six second lead before the virtual safety car and all that he got for his trouble was a P3 And an aid giving him an absolute harranging for drinking a Coke It was yet another example of a strong Norris performance failing to become the result that McLaren or he wanted So this is a straight up team issue that is undermining both Lando and Oscar and for the case of the Brit It must have been a hugely bitter pill to swallow because had he been able to take his third win of the season Not only would that have actually elevated him past the likes of George Russell in terms of victories It would have then leapt frog in past Lewis Hamilton into third place in the championship Hi, boy, thanks Max here Barry's here too Hello, and now the Premier League is back, Barry, meaning we'll be providing incredibly astute analysis three times a week Wherever you get your podcasts, Barry with the remaining ten seconds of this adverb can you provide some astute analysis I think our slow going to win the Premier League And there you are for more hot takes like that watch or listen to football weekly wherever you get your podcasts Yes, it's Angus Maximus, this partner has one pound of hot shooting cooked to honor Angus Speed

19:02The battle is closed and for only 599 even regular juice can afford it like that guy Give me that big old burger, yes The whole Angus Maximus only 599 is cold senior A bill for a limited time of participating restaurants tax not included not valid for use within a combo or in combination with any other offer or discount And that considering the awful start that Landau had and all of the precarious nerves that he had regarding his own reliability with the Mercedes power package Being third place even now overall that's still a really huge achievement But none of that makes the gap in the championship between these two drivers any more comfortable because 66 points separates these two drivers and their different fortunes throughout 2026 But to be fair that gap does include other factors that have got nothing to do with Oscar struggling to figure out his driving style with this car because they are reminds you about the Hungarian Grand Prix Those 25 points lost contribute to 38% of the gap that there is between himself and Norris

20:07Landau winning while Oscar retired with a gearbox failure having been running second and leading for a good chunk of that race as well Oscar also struggled on the hard tyres before that failure so we must mention that You could say that same afternoon contain not only a reliability problem but also a performance problem 25 points of separation from a race where his pace never really got the chance to determine his finishing position Yes he would have lost points to Norris but it would have only been 7 not 25 To me that's where the stakes become rather spicy a future title challenge for both he and Landau requires them to be able to confer absolutely everything possible even when the cars feeling a little bit under the weather That you can rise above certain melodies and you don't need to have an absolutely perfect weekend just to be able to get across the line in first place Because that makes achievements all the more impressive if you can work against a really bad car or a struggling car and then still go on to win anyway An Oscar needs to remain competitive across all sorts of conditions and the Claren needs to preserve those moments when Oscar does find that performance

21:15It doesn't need to be completely derailed right before his very eyes when he's right there in the pit lane Because every race spent learning this car is a race where you can also bag some very decent points Now patience does have value but so does asking what that patience is producing Now here's my strongest case for not calling all of this an absolute crisis for Oscar Piaestry Because put simply every single driver out there has their own patchy face either the circuit is not really their cup of tea Or there's something rock with the car which means they can't maximize the full beans out of it I mean you've only got to look at the championship leader right now Kimi and Tinelli remember last year from around the Amelia Romano Grand Prix for a good long while He was having an absolutely dreadful phase after a very strong rookie period at the beginning of 2025 So therefore I think it would be unfair for you to just look at Monza and Madrid and say oh well Oscar Piaestry has reached the ceiling of his potential and it's all downhill from here You can't say that he may be simply just going through a bit of a patchy phase of his career it happens to the best of him

22:19And it also makes his worst results larger than they actually are So does that change my overall assessment then? Now of course I'm not saying that the absolutely positively has to have four flawless weekends in a row before I allow myself to change my opinion Because F1 will retired as all by then All I'm looking for is enough comparable running to see whether Oscar is able to reach competitive pace more reliably and is able to convert it to during the Grand Prix To also see if the Gata Lando is smaller than it has been or better yet He can qualify ahead of lando with no conditions or caveats or accusations of cheating or underhanded tactics And then of course you got to see him consider how he is able to adapt to certain tyres and how he is able to get around traffic I would also like to see him being competitive at circuits where he has previously not thrived at because we all remember from the last couple of years The final back end of a particular F1 season turns out to be an absolute horrible time for the likes of Piazzi Those final fly away races turn out to be absolutely rubbish

23:19If you can have solid results at circuits like indeed Mexico and Austin Then I think that would make things all the more impressive and all the more transformative And give many of us Piazzi fans a little bit of hope that 2027 might be that little bit more different That would be able to tell us much more about his potential If he can have less dependence on everything having to go just right to be able to get a good results That would make things all the better for the Australian That even if it wasn't the best weekend he still got a good result or even a podium out of all that then absolute gravy It would also make him a much more dependable threat Because I think so far in his Formula One career he has shown more than enough speed to be able to issue any thoughts that he has watched Because he's only 25 years old Nor could I allow you to say that he's an absolute fraud He's not But I still think it's absolutely fair to crawl upon more consistency from him Because even though he is my boy I must admit he has not been driving to the best of his own ability right now He is absolutely struggling

24:19It's painful to see but we Oscar fans endure And I also ask for a little bit more consistency from his team because Zandvort I mean come on he did the deed against the Mercedes being able to emulate what he did back in Japan which was a really impressive event at the start of the year Especially since you remember that at last year's Dutch Grand Prix Oscar went on to win the thing So he can be quick there So all in all I want my boy to put all those laps together much more often And I want McLaren to be able to maintain the performance when he does find it instead of just taking it away from him Same goes for Lando Noris And I want the next thing that Andrea says to be something a little bit more constructive and a little bit more satisfying Then just offering yet another diagnosis and say I yes Oscar and I we had a little chat No I don't want another chat Andrea I want a plan of action that is something that we can see in real time By now at this point now with two constructors championships under their belt and a driver's world championship I expect to see more progress from McLaren

25:21And I expect in the fullness of time for Oscar to be offered a patch that could be as transformative and revolutionary as it was for Lando Noris at Montreal last year And something that's coming up next that you might find revolutionary might be this video over here which I do think is worth your time I'll just go and freshen myself up and I'll be right with you Hi I'm Max Rush in the host of the Guardian Football Weekly alongside me Barry Glenn Denning my co-host Hey Barry Hello! Now although every American found us during the World Cup for the two that didn't what can they expect? Found us and fell in love with us Max they can expect three episodes each week of occasionally insightful analysis covering the Premier League, Champions League and beyond Football Weekly is back watch on YouTube or listen where you get your podcasts Just two wheels, two pedals and you. At Bikes Online we share your passion for everything cycling Whatever bike you're looking for from mountain to road, either pedal powered or electric, we've got what you want ready for super fast delivery

26:26Quality gear at prices you won't find in your average bike shop All bikes are pro built and tuned before shipping to get you riding quickly If you find a better deal we'll beat it by 5% Shop now at bikesonline.com and ride more for less You've got social dialed in, search is doing its thing So why do your marketing results look the same as six months ago? That's because you're fishing in the same pond as everyone else Podcast listeners are a different audience entirely More engaged, harder to reach through traditional channels and ready to act when someone they trust makes a recommendation Here Acast and we put them right in front of you Browse thousands of the world's leading podcasts, book host reads or run your own ads And track every conversion in real time Same skills you already have brand new results Acast.acast.com slash advertise Thanks for listening to my ladder ramblings

27:26If you liked what you heard do be sure to leave a 5-star rating on your podcasting platform of choice I really do appreciate it and until the next time I traverse the ladder I hope you have a pleasant day Goodbye You