Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli will attempt to tighten his grip on the drivers’ championship on residence floor at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Nonetheless, the 20-year-old can anticipate to face a problem from a resurgent McLaren and particularly Lando Norris, who has received the previous two grands prix.
And Monza is in fact additionally residence territory for Ferrari, though the lengthy straights of the historic circuit might not go well with the traits of their automobile.
BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson solutions your newest questions earlier than spherical 13 of the 2026 season.
What does Lando Norris’ new contract extension imply for Oscar Piastri? There clearly is a few pressure behind the scenes and this season his growth performance-wise has clearly dipped. – Juha
There isn’t any query that Oscar Piastri has not began this season in addition to he did final.
In 2025, the Australian for a big a part of the yr appeared heading in the right direction for a primary world title, till his season unravelled considerably within the remaining third.
This season, team-mate Lando Norris has received two races – and may have received a 3rd in Miami.
Piastri has solely regarded in rivalry for a victory in Hungary, when Norris took his first win of the yr.
After taking the lead when Norris made an error on the primary lap, there was some dangerous luck concerned in Piastri shedding the result in Norris, when he was delayed lapping Carlos Sainz’s Williams.
However Piastri acknowledged it might have been troublesome to carry Norris again if he had retained the lead as a result of his tempo on the onerous tyres was weak. It grew to become educational when he retired with a damaged gearbox.
Though the qualifying head-to-head statistics between them don’t make nice studying for Piastri – Norris is 12-4 forward – on precise tempo, there’s not quite a bit to decide on between them over one lap. Norris is barely quicker by 0.071 seconds on common.
It is truthful to say, although, that Norris has been comfortably the extra convincing race performer – therefore the 55-point and three-place hole between them within the championship
There appear to be a couple of issues at challenge right here.
One is perhaps that Piastri has at all times been sturdy in high-speed corners. However the numbers of those which can be grip-limited has diminished this yr as a result of the engines are sometimes utilizing them to cost the battery, one thing about which all drivers have complained. In order that reduces a degree of potential benefit for Piastri.
Second, the automobiles have much less downforce than final yr, and Piastri is much less snug than Norris in low-grip situations.
Lastly, there isn’t any query that Norris upped his recreation persistently over the course of the second half of final season to win the world title, and has continued to boost his degree by this yr. With out query, he is among the drivers of the season to date.
Workforce principal Andrea Stella stated on the final race within the Netherlands: “Final yr, we had seen already with Oscar that, from a technical driving viewpoint, when the automobile has this low degree of grip, like we noticed final yr for example in Mexico or in Austin, he must adapt the best way he drives, the best way he thinks, the driving, his expectations.
“This requires a little bit of psychological effort, which will get him to lose a few tenths of a second since you form of need to course of fairly than drive by pure intuition as a result of what occurs is what you anticipate.
“So it is a type of instances by which it’s a must to adapt your pure driving fashion to the demand of the automobile. So it stays within the area of driving and within the area of the technical facet of issues. I do not assume it has something to do with any psychological type of alternative. That is purely technical.”
Stella factors out that the highest three groups are very shut by way of efficiency, which suggests, as he places it, “as quickly as issues are usually not optimised, then you could have a really vital positional loss – it’s totally brutal from this viewpoint”.
Each McLaren and Piastri reject any suggestion that there is perhaps pressure of their relationship.
It is a reality, although, that McLaren needed to signal Max Verstappen this summer time, and that if they’d it is just about sure it might have been Piastri who was changed.
That risk has receded for now, with Verstappen’s new contract with Red Bull. However that contract has efficiency clauses, and if Purple Bull are nonetheless struggling subsequent yr, it might be that McLaren have one other go for Verstappen.
For now, Piastri is below contract to the top of 2027 at the very least, and might be focusing solely on getting again to the place he is aware of he will be.
