Piastri to feature in "entirely new car" after F1's hiatus

Oscar Piastri and McLaren teammate Lando Norris will have “an entirely new car” from the Miami Grand Prix.

After a near six-week hiatus, F1 is back at the start of May in Miami before heading north to Canada.

Races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled due to the Middle East conflict situation with the break gifting teams the time to address how the transformative 2026 regulations had impacted their performances.

Looking to catch the pace setters in Mercedes and Ferrari, McLaren’s Team Principal Andrea Stella said the team had worked hard to upgrade the car.

Mclaren currently sit third in the constructors’ standings as they look for a third consecutive title while Norris and Piastri sit fifth and sixth respectively.

A double did not start in China paired with Piastri’s DNS in Melbourne impacted the start to their campaign.

"In our intent, there was always the idea to deliver a completely new car – especially from an aerodynamic upgrades point of view – for the North American races so we could keep up with this plan," Stella said this week.

"Obviously, the fact that the calendar has been changed sort of helped a little bit, like I'm sure helped all the other teams that could work more streamlined towards upgrading the car rather than being busy with racing.

“But I could say overall that, across Miami and Canada, we will see an entirely new MCL40. Again, I would like to stress that this is what I would expect of most of our competitors so (it is) not necessarily going to be a shift in the pecking order, it will be effectively just a check who has been able to add more performance within the same time frame.

“We also have some performance to recover if we look at Mercedes, and to some extent Ferrari as well, but we are quite happy with the development that we've been able to manage in the background.

"Hopefully we should be able to see a slightly more competitive MCL40 in Miami and then in Canada, considering that the last race was already a decent competitive performance in Japan. So we definitely look forward to the next races.”

"Not a good look": Piastri's take on Max's F1 threat

Max Verstappen’s suggestion he could retire from Formula One because of just how much the rule changes have impacted the sport would “not be a good look”, according to Oscar Piastri.

Amid significant criticism of how much the sport has been altered – and in many opinions diminished - by the regulation changes brought in for 2026, the four-time world champion has been the most vocal of the drivers.

Likening F1 to Mario Kart, Verstappen has made no secret of the fact he would be happy to walk away from his Red Bull seat if things are not addressed.

"I think it would be a shame for the sport to lose Max, especially at this point in his career as well," Piastri said.

"It would be a big loss for the sport as a whole.

"As drivers, we want to race against and try to prove ourselves against the best. Max has shown his calibre in the last 10 years. Especially the last five or six, he's been the benchmark.

"So, I think for everyone, it would be a pretty big shame, and obviously not a great look." The April races scheduled for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East which has allowed time for the governing body to make some updates."

In their first attempt to “fix the issues”, drivers will be given the green light to go flat-out for longer during qualifying when racing resumes in Miami next month.

Despite releasing four sections of alterations, the truth is, very little will change.

When it comes to Max’s future in the sport, McLaren driver Lando Norris echoed his teammate’s sentiments.

"Max has earned the right to go and do whatever he wants. He's won four world championships. He's always been the guy," he said.

"So it will be a shame for the sport, it will be a loss for the sport if that does happen, because he probably is one of the best drivers you'll see in Formula 1 ever.

"And I think it'll be a shame for us, because as much as he makes our lives incredibly tough at times, he's always good fun to race against.”