Oscar Piastri Warns 2026 F1 Cars Could Be a “Recipe for Disaster”

Oscar Piastri has warned the community that the cars of the 2026 regulations could be a recipe for 'disaster' from the beginning.

Oscar Piastri Warns 2026 F1 Cars Could Be a “Recipe for Disaster”

Oscar Piastri (via IMAGO)

The 2026 season hasn’t even begun yet, and many of the drivers cannot seem to catch a break from criticizing the regulations. Many drivers believe that the challengers are too complex and unsafe to race around in. Moreover, Oscar Piastri has remained critical of the regulations, as he has once again labeled the modern cars as a ‘recipe for disaster’.

During the third day of the Bahrain pre-season test, the drivers went through a trial race start procedure. While some drivers pulled away, many couldn’t even move their car forward, which included Oscar Piastri. Because of this, Piastri believed that the regulations were borderline unsafe for the drivers. Moreover, with the removal of the MGU-H, teams must manually spool the turbo to eliminate the lag, which takes over ten seconds.

Certainly, many things needed to be addressed before the beginning of the 2026 season. Among other things, Oscar Piastri reckoned that the race starts and overtaking issues were the most obvious ones. However, Piastri noted that it was going to be difficult to fix the problems without finishing a couple of races at the beginning of the season.

The starts are the most obvious ones for now, and overtaking, but it is always going to be tough until you’ve actually had a race.

Oscar Piastri said, as reported by RacingNews365.

Oscar Piastri questioned whether drivers needed to utilize their Straight Line Mode (SLM) during the race start. The Aussie declared that 22 drivers starting the race with extra downforce and turbo down the main straight felt like a recipe for disaster to him. Piastri continued that these weren’t the only problems that needed to be looked at and fixed before the 2026 season started.

[It is] whether we use straight line mode at the start because I think a pack of 22 cars with a couple of hundred points less of downforce sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. So, there are a few of those aspects that need to be spoken about.

Oscar Piastri added.

Oscar Piastri reveals the ‘importance’ of pre-season testing for 2026

The 2026 season regulations are seemingly a much bigger change from any of the previous changes. Even the veteran in Lewis Hamilton is surprised by how big a regulation jump it is going from the ground-effect era to the latest one. As such, Oscar Piastri opened up on how the pre-season testing was very crucial, now more than ever, because of the radical change.

Oscar Piastri (via F1)
Oscar Piastri (via F1)

Oscar Piastri asserted that the three days of practice were necessary to let the teams get close to the shared goal of achieving the best possible results. The Aussie accepted that the extra time was necessary for the teams and the drivers. Piastri highlighted that the extra time would not help improve performance, but it was required from a safety point of view.

We’re certainly going to be needing those three days to get everything working the way closer to what we want, The extra testing time has definitely been necessary for just the systems, and as a sport, we need the time. From a performance point of view, you don’t really need it, probably, but there are so many things from a borderline safety point of view that need to be figured out and addressed.

Oscar Piastri noted.

Mercedes is reportedly leading development for the 2026 season, and this will, in turn, directly help boost McLaren’s performance. For now, all teams are managing expectations, and even Oscar Piastri is not hoping for a picture-perfect start to the year. Time will tell how the drivers fare against the massive expectations laid on them by the fans.

Read More: Max Verstappen Warns 2026 F1 Rules Would be a Complete “Disaster”