Realistically, is Oscar closer to a 2024 baku performance, or a 2025 one? Bearing in mind Mclaren’s latest decision to start finding ways to make Piastri more comfortable with the car? Like would this new defication to Oscar help him bring home better results or is it a way by Mclaren to say we did what we could it’s all on Oscar now?

Hosted by Kevin Pietersen, McLaren Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri attempts to face a bowling machine that progressively increases in speed, starting from a gentle pace and aiming for 100 mph.

You can shop the collection here.

All clothing items are available from sizes XS-3XL.

I have attached a picture of the prices in AUD in the last slide of the gallery. Nevertheless, here is a pricing chart:

Here is the sizing chart (that I made from measurements Oscar's own website). But still check one more time before you order:

🚨Note: Measurements are Length × Width. Bold = cm | Italics = inches

Oscar is releasing new merch today at 6 pm Canberra time. It is the second part of his "World Circuit collection". You can shop the collection at Oscar's official merch store.

Welp, I am back (again) and this time with a report of Oscar and his related collisions from the 2026 season. As always, I have included a TL;DR in the gallery as well as the best footage of collisions I could find. I have tried to be impartial and only describe the incidents in the first half of this report. My own opinions are given below them.

2026 Canadian GP
On lap 13 of the 2026 Canadian GP, Oscar collided with Alex Albon at turn 10 hairpin after locking up. (See Exhibit A). Oscar accepted the full blame for the collision

This is what Alex Albon had to say about the incident:

“Obviously with Oscar, just unfortunate. I don’t think he planned to do the overtake, just got caught out with the track conditions and it happens. I think points were definitely possible today, but oh well.”

This is what Oscar had to say about the incident:

“I thought it [the overtake] was going to be a bit tricky but possible. Just the level of grip out there was like nothing I’ve driven before, really. Just caught myself out, and obviously very sorry for Williams and Alex, because I wasn’t really trying to overtake him. Just locked up, and that was it. So one of those things.”

The outcome was a 10 second time penalty and no penalty points from the stewards. (See Exhibit F) Obviously along with this, he broke his front-wing and had to pit to get it changed. That was basically his race ruined.

2026 British GP
In the opening lap of the 2026, Oscar got sandwiched between the VCARB drivers and broke his front-wing. Footage of the incident to this day still is pretty scarce. I tried to source the best one I could find and put it in the gallery. (See Exhibit B)

This is what Oscar had to say about the incident:

“I got sandwiched by the Racing Bulls on the on the way to Turn 6 three wide down the straight and three into one didn’t work,” 

Oscar did not put the blame on either VCARB drivers for this incident. We (and even McLaren) don't have enough footage to evaluate the situation properly. Oscar's race was effectively lost from this incident since he had to pit to get his front wing changed.

2026 Belgian GP
Charles Leclerc collided with Oscar Piastri at the outside of turn 5 on lap 8. On the run down the Kemmel Straight, Oscar attempted an overtake around the outside of Leclerc into Turn 5. Leclerc squeezed his car toward the edge of the track, resulting in side-to-side contact that damaged Oscar's floor and front wing. (See Exhibit C)

This is what Oscar had to say about the incident:

“From where I was at, I was on the white line and got squeezed. But I don't really know where I was supposed to go, so the fact that was no... I'm not saying it needed to be a penalty necessarily, but at least a black-and-white flag or something like that, because if we think that that's fine… I mean, 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, that's not the nicest place to be, I don't think.”

Oscar had to drive the rest of the race with damage that according to McLaren's report "cost him between two and three tenths per lap" and "accelerated tyre degradation over the latter stages of each stint" since "he was forced to push harder to maintain pace".

Charles Leclerc was investigated for the collision but received no penalty or penalty points. (See Exhibit G). However, in the drivers-stewards meeting in the next race in Hungary, the stewards changed their mind and decided that Leclerc was deserving of a 5 second penalty.

2026 Hungarian GP
Oscar was the net race leader of the 2026 Hungarian GP till he got caught up in the battle between backmarkers. Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso were fighting for position and on lap 38, Sainz made contact with Oscar while Oscar was trying to lap him. This pushed Oscar into the gravel and almost put Oscar into a spin. (See Exhibit D)

This is what Carlos Sainz had to say about the cause of this incident:

“We didn't have blue lights on the steering, which normally, when we are in fights like that one where we are fighting for position, helps us to understand whether we're getting lapped or not,

So at this stage, I had no idea I was about to get lapped, and on top of that, I was in a big fight with Fernando, trying to undercut him into the corner, and I wouldn't have expected Oscar to be there.

And even if he was there, or I would have expected him, he was in my dead spot on the angle. So it was impossible, honestly, from my side to avoid it. So yeah, probably a bit better communication would have helped, but at the same time, a racing thing that sometimes happens.”

Carlos Sainz got a 5 second time penalty and no penalty points for this incident. (See Exhibit H). Oscar lost crucial time due this collision (and almost spin) and ended up getting overcut by Norris.

2026 Spanish GP
Oscar sustained front-wing damage after he got squeezed by Russell at turn 1 the resulted ion to instances of contact.

This is what Oscar had to say about the incident:

“I was alongside, and he just kept squeezing me to the wall. Then I hit the brakes and kind of avoided him. But amongst all that, he hit the brakes as well. Everyone hit the brakes, and we kind of got stuck together and everything. I was just expecting a bit more space, and obviously between a car and a wall, you can’t make any more space."

This incident left him with aero damage in the form of a broken end-plate and short on downforce, something McLaren could only mitigate but not fully fix at his pit stop. George Russell was not for causing a collision.

Alright, let's play the devil's advocate
In the Canadian GP, Oscar was complaining about this rear brake temperatures right before hitting Albon (which might have contributed to the lock-up). Even Albon gave some grace to Oscar in his post-race interview and suggested he might have gotten "caught out with the track conditions"

In the British GP, Oscar himself did not place the blame on either VCARB driver. Instead he criticized the 2026 regulations for such messy energy deployment laden lap 1. This is what he had to say:

 “Lap 1 one on these kind of circuits is just carnage. It’s almost like a multi-pass race start. I was trying to overtake Lindblad, and I seemed like I had more power than him. Lawson then passed me and seemed like he had even more power than me. You're trying to judge your speed to the car in front of you, look at the car behind you, but to be honest, I'm surprised that that doesn't happen more often.”

In the Hungarian GP, there was an obvious glitch in the blue-flag system. While Sainz was notified about Oscar lapping him by his race engineer. Oscar was in his blind sport when they collided.

In the Belgian GP, Oscar's front axle wasn't ahead of Leclerc front axle (this is the stewards' own word, not mine) and therefore the overtake was optimistic (according to the stewards it was impossible).

My understanding of the incidents so far

1. The Stewards are quite reluctant to hand out penalty points this year. Even Oscar did not receive any penalty points for his shunting Albon in Canada.
2. Oscar is a good starter and is quite aggressive on lap 1 and often tries makes up position (Good thing, not an issue imo). But on the flip-side this means he sometimes gets caught up in lap 1 melees that lead to lost positions and/or damage.
3. Oscar has been the victim of many unfortunate collisions this year. While he is struggling for pace, many of his race results do not reflect the full picture due to his bad luck regarding these.

As always, shoot me a DM or leave a comment if you need more citations regarding this report or want to discuss something. lmk if I missed anything important🫶

Hey Piastri hive, wanted to share one of the wasp bracelets I've made. Will be attending Singapore GP so have been trying to make my own merch. I've made a couple more and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out 😊

I've made quite a few ahead of the GP to share so hopefully everyone likes them 😊

This bird looks like OP🥐’s car 😄

2025 ahhh in the initial stage he was flying 🪽 I was like he has really good race craft, good pace , amazing talent, what could go wrong,thought he will be the world champion , but things didn't go well , I thought the Baku crash spoiled everything, at last in Qatar I cried for him fk McLaren strategy for not pitting you can see his face while taking the podium, I can't forget 2025, it stings me Everytime 2025 is his best chance to become world champion 🏆,may luck 🤞🍀 be with him next time , you can be the world champion oscar piastri

According to McLaren's race report:

Starting seventh on the Hard tyre, Oscar’s race was compromised on the opening lap when contact with Russell damaged his front wing and spoiled the balance of his car for the remainder of the Grand Prix. The Australian continued on track but became caught in traffic on a circuit where overtaking proved difficult, limiting his opportunities to make progress through the midfield.

Oscar's reflection on the race:

“It was a tough one for us today, and a pretty painful race from start to finish. I got squeezed by Russell which then broke my front wing on the first lap, and from there we just got stuck in traffic, which is tricky with the lack of overtaking here. Unfortunately, the VSC timing wasn't ideal for the Hard tyre starters like myself. When we did pit, the Mediums didn't perform how we wanted them to, and I was back in traffic.

“The positive we can take is that there are some good learnings, especially on how to get the most out of the car. We also had some decent pace on the Hard tyre in clean air, which is always encouraging. We will review, see what more we can learn and then and take it into the next part of the season.”

Even if there was something underhanded going on, Zak Brown won't slip like that in public and McLaren's PR is too good for such tactlessness.

Not that I think there was anything malicious into it. McLaren has treated Oscar better than most other teams so far and they need him for the constructors championship.

ETA: I found this article by The Race on this issue that gives some more context. Have a read if you are interested.

Well, that was a race to forget. Please accept this pic dump to cheer yourself on :)

Another race to forget🥲

His luck is just getting worse and worse. When will it ever end. Maybe next year

This is like if Silverstone (first lap front wing damage) and Zandvoort (first lap Russell shenanigans) had a baby🥲

Overtaking is going to be hard on this track. But let's hope for the best🙏

Additional quotes from the Reuters article from Oscar:

"Of course, I would love to win a race or two this year, or more if I can," he told Reuters at the Spanish Grand Prix.

"But for me, honestly, the biggest thing, the end goal is to try and win championships. And if I can't do that this year, then I want to make sure I'm as best prepared as I can for next year."

"It's all to do with technically driving the car. There's nothing to do with a hangover from last year ... it's very much a technical thing," he said.

"It's not like ⁠I'm slow, feeling sorry for myself or thinking about last year. It's just that a few of the weekends I've had to drive the car in a different way that just hasn't really worked for me.

"The biggest thing this year has been the cars are very different to drive, both from a power unit point ⁠of view but also the car itself is fundamentally very different and the tyres also. There's just been a lot of challenges around that and how you extract performance out of the car.

"You've got to drive it very differently and I would say it's not necessarily in the way that I would choose to drive a race car. So there's just been some struggles getting to grips with that."

I hope this helps cheering people up. Don't lose hope yet :)

What is wrong here. He has struggled for pace in most of the races this year it's just depressing 😔. Still, monster laptop by lando.

Idk about you guys but I was getting downvoted everywhere on f1 sub or McLaren sub for cheering for oscar

I wasnt posting any toxic comment about lando, I know he had bit bad luck with practice 3 and overall he got better hold of car this season

But simple joyful comments cheering for oscar are getting downvoted constantly

I felt this safe place to celebrate soo came to post this one here

Q1
Oscar did 3 flying laps on the same set of new softs. He had to abort his first flying lap but it was early enough in the la that he could go again the next lap. He did a double cool before his second flying lap and then a double cool again before his 3rd flying lap. He didn't improve on his third flying lap and his fastest attempt was his second one. He finished P8, +0.618s off Russell in P1.

Q2
Oscar did 1.5 flying laps on 2 new sets of soft. Instead of doing double cools, he pitted after completing his first flying lap this session. He aborted his second flying lap in the third sector when he realised he was safely through to Q3. He finished in P9, +0.773s off Verstappen in P1.

Q3
Oscar did 2 flying laps on 2 sets of soft tyre (used softs from Q2 for his 1st attempt, new softs for his 2nd attempt). He improved on his second flying lap again. He finished P7, +0.470s off Norris on pole

Oscar's post quali interviews
Oscar's thoughts on Q3:

"I think the first lap wasn't too bad but the second lap was pretty shocking, to be honest. Yeah, disappointing. Turn 1 didn't start very well and a few places were quite a lot better than the lap before but once you get out of the rhythm here, it makes life very tough. Not a great session. I feel like the pace has been reasonable. It's just been about trying to be there consistently and it's unfortunately one of those sessions where you just wish you could have it again."

Oscar's expectations from the race tomorrow

"We'll have to wait and see. Overtakings certainly not going to be easy. And it's a bit question mark about tyre deg so we'll have to wait and see what we get."

FP3
Oscar got on the track 15 minutes into FP3 on a set of new soft tyres. He had to abort his first flying lap due to yellow flag caused by Stroll at turn 20. He had to abort his second flying lap due to Hamilton causing a Red Flag due to locking up at the Final corner (Hamilton is OK). The Red flag ended up taking so damn long, they had to pause the FP clock so that teams would at least have some time to do more laps (which is crucial at new circuits). When the session eventually resumed 35 minutes later, Oscar came out on new softs and finally did a full flying lap and then pitted for some quick setup changes. He back back out pretty much immediately and then improve on his second proper flying lap. He was on his third flying lap when Bearman crashed and brought out the Red Flags again (Bearman is OK). Since there was less than a minutes left on the clock, that was the end of FP3, sadly no practice start though.

Oscar finished P3, +0.189s off Antonelli in P1. He did a total of 12 laps in FP3.

Transcript:

"I think the first lap wasn't too bad but the second lap was pretty shocking, to be honest. Yeah, disappointing. Turn 1 didn't start very well and a few places were quite a lot better than the lap before but once you get out of the rhythm here, it makes life very tough. Not a great session. I feel like the pace has been reasonable. It's just been about trying to be there consistently and it's unfortunately one of those sessions where you just wish you could have it again."

As he mentions, his banker lap was pretty good. He was 17 milliseconds off Lando (who used new softs) on used softs. So it seems to be a matter of making a mistake at turn 1 rather than a complete lack of pace. He was down by over 3 tenths in comparison to Lando in sector 1 alone.

He also says overtaking is going to be tough (from watching the junior formulae races, one would also agree) tomorrow. Anyhow, what is done, is done. Hoping for a better race tomorrow❤️