Martin Brundle gets the sense that Oscar Piastri is ‘beginning’ to turn his form around at McLaren after a ‘very difficult season’.

Piastri came close to winning the world championship in 2025, leading by 34 points at one stage and eventually finishing just 13 adrift of teammate Lando Norris.

The Australian won seven races last year but has only stood on the podium twice in 2026, with the last of those top three finishes coming in Miami. His drought has now reached 14 races.

Martin Brundle offers hope to Oscar Piastri after ‘season to forget’

Speaking on Sky Sports F1 before the United States Grand Prix, Brundle put Piastri’s struggles down to a disconnect with the new generation of cars.

There is a school of thought that Piastri is suffering a hangover from the 2025 run-in, when his title hopes unravelled and some controversial McLaren decisions went against him. But the message from team principal Andrea Stella is that his issues are driving-related.

What's the BIGGEST reason for Oscar Piastri's downturn at McLaren this year? 📉

However, Brundle is starting to see signs of progress from the 25-year-old. Piastri has been the faster McLaren in four of the last seven qualifying sessions, having trailed Norris in each of the previous eight.

That progress may not have been appreciated from the outside because McLaren have lost momentum. They were threatening to become the pacesetters when Norris won in Hungary and the Netherlands, but a major upgrade in Azerbaijan derailed their progress.

“None of the words are particularly good words, are they, really?” Brundle said of Piastri’s season. “I think it’s been, for a young man who was dominating last year’s world championship, a very difficult season.

“He’s not found a way with these cars. He did with the ground-effect cars. However he likes to attack a corner… I don’t think he’s been getting any reward from that.

“It’s been a season to forget, but I sense he’s just beginning to turn it around.”

Like Brundle, Jenson Button says Piastri is improving at last, which will offer him some hope heading into the off-season.

Similarities have been drawn between Piastri and George Russell, who dominated Kimi Antonelli last year but has also struggled to adjust to the reduced grip levels this term.