Oscar Piastri was unable to complete a full testing day due to a fuel system issue, leaving him on the backfoot compared to Lando Norris.

Piastri’s teammate Norris was able to complete 77 laps during McLaren’s first day of preseason testing. However, the Australians’ time was cut short, resulting in only 48 laps completed.

He said, “It was nice to be back out today, especially in the new car. There’s a lot of challenges this year up and down the grid, so it was good to get stuck in. We had a fuel system issue, which cut our day short, but the team’s working hard to get that fixed and back out tomorrow.”

Judgement on the 2026 cars is still out with Piastri then saying, “These cars are completely different to what we’ve had the last few years. That’s part of what this test is about. We’ve already identified a few things that we can try to improve on the car to make it feel a bit nicer.”

“We have one more day of running tomorrow. We’ll continue to get used to the car and get a good read on how different things feel. Then we’ll find a good direction to make the car quicker and feel nicer.”

McLaren loses out on precious testing time

McLaren is headed into the 2026 season as the constructors' champions for the second year in a row. After dominating the 2025 season, the Woking-based team is looking to capitalise on the new season as well.

Their technical director, Mark Temple, mentioned that despite their day being cut short, there were 'positives to take away'. “We’ve got a good understanding of where the car is from a baseline point of view. In this shakedown, the most important aspect for drivers is that they understand how the new car operates, how the power unit interacts, and the process of energy management."

He continued, “Oscar now has some good reference points for that, as well as a feel for how the chassis behaves. Overall, we haven't encountered anything too unexpected. The behaviour and handling of the car is in line with what we thought, so nothing is catching the drivers out."”

Photo: McLaren

“It’s just about learning and getting to know it, and then as we get more time, we’ll look to try and tweak or tune the car. This is a shakedown and is meant to help us identify any issues so we can understand and solve them going into Bahrain, so that’s our big focus as we go into the final day tomorrow.”

With a gap of 29 laps between the two McLaren drivers, Piastri is now at a disadvantage. The preseason testing provides drivers with time to learn the new cars ahead of Australia, which is Piastri’s home race. Last year, Piastri spun out and ended up ninth, which is something he doesn't want to repeat.

Templed added, “It’s a shame we could not run in the afternoon as every minute of track time is precious at such an early stage of the season.”

“We discovered a fuel system problem, which meant we haven’t been able to do all the running we would like. The car is very complex, so we decided to bring the car back into the garage and strip it down to fully understand where the problem is coming from, ahead of tomorrow’s running.”

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