Stella: Piastri's struggles 'purely technical,' not psychological

Andrea Stella has dismissed suggestions Oscar Piastri's ongoing struggles are psychological, insisting the Australian's winless run is a "purely technical" problem rooted in the 2026 regulations.

Piastri's sixth-place finish at Zandvoort means he will go a full calendar year without a grand prix victory, his last coming at the 2025 Dutch GP. He sits seventh in the standings with 104 points after 12 races, with a best finish of second in Japan.

Why it matters:

The 2026 cars have had downforce slashed and created in a different style to the ground-effect machines Piastri drove from his 2023 debut. The new breed is less stable at the rear and slides more, requiring constant micro-corrections that clash with Piastri's smooth, fluent driving style.

The details:

• Stella says the issue is "in the space of driving and in the space of the technical side of things" — not psychological.
• When the car has low grip, Piastri needs to adapt his driving, his expectations, and his thinking, which costs him "a couple of tenths of a second."
• At Zandvoort, Stella pointed to two factors: a slow pit stop that cost a position to Russell (a team responsibility), and an inability to switch on the hard tires in the second stint.
• The field is incredibly tight — at least three teams are within one-tenth of a second, meaning small issues lead to big positional losses.

What's next:

Stella says he's "happy with the improvements" seen over the Dutch GP weekend and expects more from Piastri for the rest of the season. With the field so tightly packed, even marginal gains could see Piastri return to the front.