McLaren Explains Issue That Cut Oscar Piastri’s First Day of 2026 Short

Oscar Piastri's first on-track action in the new McLaren Formula 1 car was cut short by a reliability issue on day four of pre-season testing.

The reigning constructors' champions only hit the track for the first time on Wednesday - three days into the test - with Lando Norris running with the number 1 on his car for the first time.

Teams are busy getting used to new machinery over the five-day test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which is being held behind closed doors.

Piastri's day ends early

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 2026 F1 pre-season test — McLaren F1 Team

And while information regarding issues affecting rivals has been scarce when things have gone wrong, McLaren and Piastri have been forthcoming in explaining what forced the Australian to end his day after just 48 laps.

“It was nice to be back out today, especially in the new car," said Piastri, who finished third in the drivers' standings last term. "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."

“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's technical director of performance, Mark Temple, revealed why the issue meant Piastri couldn't return to the track in the afternoon.

Full send in the MCL40, OP style 🚀#McLarenF1 | #F1 🧡 pic.twitter.com/z05dkF1Zm7
— McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team 🧡 (@McLarenF1) January 29, 2026

"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," he said. “Of course, 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.”

Piastri and Norris will split duties on Friday, with two further tests lined up in Bahrain next month before the season opener in Australia.

The Latest Formula 1 News