Oscar Piastri is a racing driver competing in the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship for McLaren, car number 81. His third season was a title campaign; his fourth has been a rebuild. Eleven rounds in, Piastri sits seventh on 92 points with two podiums — and is still waiting for a first win of a year that began before it started.
The Reset Season
Piastri's stock has risen on a strict schedule since his 2023 debut: a steady rookie year, a first two wins in 2024, then a genuine title tilt in 2025 with seven victories and sixteen podiums that ultimately ended with team-mate Lando Norris taking the crown. Nine wins and 28 podiums from 81 starts is a ledger most drivers never build — and fourteen poles from those 81 entries, one in six of the races he has started, is elite Saturday company for a man whose qualifying reputation has only grown.
2026 began with a slice of history nobody wanted: did-not-starts in both Melbourne and Shanghai, the first driver ever to open a season with two consecutive DNS. Once racing, he was immediately quick — second at Suzuka, third in Miami — and has been a regular top-five presence since, but a Budapest retirement and a winless first half leave the Australian chasing momentum rather than a championship. Whether this is a blip or the natural cycle of a career still ascending is the question of McLaren's season.
2026 Season Log
| Rd | Race | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | Did not start | 0 |
| 2 | Shanghai | Did not start | 0 |
| 3 | Suzuka | P2 | 18 |
| 4 | Miami | P3 | 15 |
| 5 | Montreal | P11 | 0 |
| 6 | Monte Carlo | P5 | 10 |
| 7 | Barcelona | P5 | 10 |
| 8 | Spielberg | P4 | 12 |
| 9 | Silverstone | P11 | 0 |
| 10 | Spa | P5 | 10 |
| 11 | Budapest | Retired | 0 |
Career by the Numbers
| Season | Team | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | McLaren | 11 | 0 | 2 | P2 |
| 2025 | McLaren | 24 | 7 | 16 | P1 |
| 2024 | McLaren | 24 | 2 | 8 | P1 |
| 2023 | McLaren | 22 | 0 | 2 | P2 |
Career stats via the Jolpica/Ergast API, updated after Round 11 (Budapest). Pole totals include sprint-shootout poles, per site methodology. Starts count race entries from 2023.
The 2026 Season So Far
Strip out the opening DNS pair and the pattern is quietly consistent: since his season began at round three he has scored in all but three rounds, with podiums at Suzuka and Miami, top-fives at Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Spielberg and Spa, and a single retirement in Budapest. The gap to the top — 127 points to Antonelli — is a season's worth of ground, so the realistic 2026 goals are a first win and reeling in Verstappen and Norris in the intra-McLaren fight. Model the comeback with the championship calculator, or read how the first half unfolded in the mid-season review.
McLaren's 220 points have them third in the constructors' championship, and the sharp end of that account is Norris's — 128 to Piastri's 92 — so the intra-team battle that decided the 2025 title between the pair has swung back toward the champion. Piastri turned 25 in April; the career ledger (nine wins, a title tilt, and a decade presumably still ahead of him) says the patience will likely be rewarded. The 2026 job is to make sure the wait does not last the season.