Martin Brundle gave Oscar Piastri fans cause for optimism when he spoke before the United States Grand Prix.

Brundle said Piastri was ‘beginning to turn it around’ after ‘a season to forget’ at McLaren.

Piastri hasn’t scored a podium since Miami but there were still signs of progress. He qualified third at Monza, albeit before receiving a three-place penalty for impeding, and only lost out to teammate Lando Norris on the final lap.

The Australian was fighting for a podium in Azerbaijan before a strange lock-up at turn one spoiled his race, and he broadly extracted the car’s potential in Malaysia and Singapore with solid top-six finishes.

Martin Brundle’s cautious optimism about Oscar Piastri instantly fades

While Norris had a superior lap time deleted in Austin due to a track limits violation, Piastri has improved relative to his teammate in qualifying trim, beating him in four of the last seven sessions. He still trails 11-7 in the season head-to-head, but that’s a respectable effort against a world champion.

And yet, it felt like the positivity was undone during a bleak race in Austin. Piastri had to let Norris through in the early stages due to an obvious pace deficit – a move McLaren had already discussed in their briefing.

He managed to keep George Russell behind in the battle for P7, but that was only consolation as he finished two places and over 22 seconds adrift of his teammate despite running a virtually identical strategy.

Piastri admitted his pace was ‘pretty bad’ but seemed at a loss to explain why. Just like that, Brundle’s cautious optimism evaporated.

Reviewing McLaren’s race in his Sky Sports F1 column, he wrote: “Norris did a fine job in fifth, having pitted on Lap 16 but then changing to a one-stopper, stretching his hard compound tyres a full 40 laps. In the end, he ran out of grip and slipped from second place, but it was good while it lasted.

“Oscar Piastri in the sister McLaren had another disappointing race, lacking front-running pace from relatively early on and finishing 52 seconds behind the winner. Oscar simply can’t seem to gel with the 2026 cars and it’s painful to witness after his stellar run last year.”

Piastri is now 67 points behind Norris in the standings, having trailed him by just 13 at the end of last season. The gap was 108 in his rookie season and 82 in 2024.

He will work intensively with McLaren engineers over the winter break to make the necessary modifications to his driving style, which favours smooth inputs. The reduction in downforce this year, thought to be around 30%, has induced an uncomfortable level of sliding.