Oscar Piastri named his goal for the second half of the season.

      Before the summer break, Oscar Piastri spoke with the McLaren press service, summarizing the first half of the season and discussing his goals for the remaining races of 2026.

      Oscar Piastri: "This season has definitely had its ups and downs. I think overall our level of competitiveness hasn't quite been what we wanted. We were close to wins, made it to the podium a few times, and that's certainly good, but last year we set a very high bar.

      Additionally, we faced plenty of problems – there were both challenging races and reliability issues. So the first half of the season has definitely been uneven.

      In terms of results, we had good weekends in Japan and Miami. I think Austria was also quite good. Fourth place is a respectable result, but for me, it was important how we managed to improve after Barcelona and how that weekend went overall.

      Barcelona was definitely one of the toughest stages of the year. I had to understand a lot after that weekend and work hard on myself. I feel like everything went very well in Austria – I was able to recover and apply what I learned. Good results are one thing, but I also feel like I understood a lot about where I can improve as a driver, even if the results don't always reflect that.

      Right now, the stakes aren't as high, especially compared to last year. Of course, you still try to perform your best and achieve the maximum result, but there's a bit less pressure. This allows for trying something new, experimenting a bit, and seeing where else we can improve.

      In my opinion, the new regulations are very different from the previous ones in many ways. In past regulation changes, the cars themselves also changed significantly – for example, the level of downforce or the ways to create it. But the current changes have fundamentally altered the approach to driving the car in some sense. For all of us, it has been a huge reset, including for me. I had to approach many things differently and change some of my usual working methods.

      We have to find a lot of new solutions and new ways to extract the maximum from both the car and ourselves. It's very easy to fall into a familiar rhythm and keep doing everything the way you did before, but with these cars, that approach doesn't always work – I think Barcelona was a good example.

      In Austria, I felt that I really needed to step outside my comfort zone a bit, try something new, and approach driving differently.

      Every car requires its own approach to go fast. And I feel that in the last races before the break, I was understanding better how to drive this car, how it works, and what needs to be done to go fast. And all of this is far from always obvious or intuitive.

      Since the beginning of the season, we have made significant progress with these cars. Partly, this is because we, the drivers, have gradually gotten used to them, and partly it is due to the work of the teams, FIA, and Formula 1, which made changes throughout the season and tried to make the cars better.

      Looking back at the first half of the season, we realize that there is still a lot of work to be done. Of course, you can't just make the regulations and the races exactly how the drivers want them – otherwise, everyone else might find it quite boring. But some changes can still be made to improve the current situation. I'm curious to see what we can achieve in the second half of the season and next year.

      The results of the last races give me confidence. If you look at what we have already achieved as a team and how we have improved throughout the season, that's a good sign. In 2023, we were in a much worse position than we are now, but we managed to significantly improve and start fighting for podiums.

      The way Lando and I worked together during that period, trying to make the car faster so that we could then fight for the results we needed, hasn't changed since then. We still work well together, productively discuss everything with the team, and move towards a common goal.

      I think this is one of the real strengths of our team. Yes, everything is different now, the cars are different, and perhaps the path to the next step forward will also be different. But in the past, we managed to make progress, and I'm confident we can do it again.

      We fully understand the position we are in. We have no illusions – we lack speed, and we really want to fix that. We have good ideas on how to achieve this. I think everyone in the team wants to return to the previous level and feel the taste of success again.

      As for me, I always strive to get better and learn something new. Everything I can learn now and that will help me when we find ourselves in a stronger position again will only be beneficial.

      In terms of results, I would like to fight for wins again, as we did at the Hungaroring. If we can fight for wins again, then we can think about what we are capable of achieving in the championship.

      But first and foremost, we need to extract the maximum from the car and from ourselves every weekend. If the car allows us to fight for the win, then we will try to win."