Exclusive interview: Oscar hungry to get back to winning ways

Read time: 9 mins

After contending for the 2025 Formula 1 title until the very last lap of the season, Oscar has remained patient during a character-building first half of 2026.

The vastly overhauled chassis and engine regulations have reshuffled the field, with McLaren sitting somewhere between second and fourth fastest depending on the circuit. At the front of the field, those who are able to get upgrades onto their cars the quickest, and who can maximise their power unit performance, have held the upper hand in the opening months.

Back-to-back DNS’ (Did Not Start) compounded the early-season teething troubles, denying the Australian the chance to race in both his home race and the Chinese Grand Prix, but in typical Oscar fashion,he dusted himself down and rebounded. Oscar led the Grand Prix next time out in Japan – his first completed racing lap of a Grand Prix in 2026 was in first place – before he finished second, after an ill-timed Safety Car period denied him a possible shot at victory.

Miami delivered a runner-up position – led by Lando in a McLaren 1-2 – in the Sprint race, followed by another podium result (third) in the Grand Prix itself, once again behind his teammate. It has since been a learning curve through the European phase of the campaign, with further points finishes interspersed by misfortune and setbacks. The pre-summer Grand Prix in Hungary perhaps best encapsulated that mood: Oscar grabbed the lead on the opening lap and was sat in P3 before being forced to retire on Lap 56 with a gearbox reliability issue. Heading into the summer break, it leaves Oscar seventh in the Drivers’ Championship.

“Definitely up and down,” Oscar says. “I think our kind of general level of performance has not been quite where we want it to be, obviously. We've come close to some victories and had a few podiums, which has been good, but we obviously set the bar pretty high last year. We've also had a fair share of issues, whether it be difficult races or reliability issues. So definitely up and down.”

The obvious ups include Japan and Miami, where he departed with a handful of trophies in his luggage, but our Number 81 says that several other results have also left him feeling encouraged, even if they haven’t resulted in a podium.

“Results-wise, Japan and Miami were both good weekends,” Oscar says. “I think also Austria was a good one. The result was reasonable, with the P4, but also in terms of the turnaround from Barcelona and just how I felt the weekend went. Barcelona was definitely one of the more difficult weekends of the year, and I had to learn a lot from that one and improve quite a lot, and I feel like Austria was really good: to bounce back and put some of that learning into place. I think the good results have been one thing, but I feel like I've also learned a lot about how I can improve myself as a driver, even if the results don't always show it.”

At the corresponding stage of the 2025 season, Oscar had six wins to his name, so naturally 2026 has been underwhelming in comparison, yet it is not simply a case of waiting for fortunes to improve.

“The stakes aren't quite as high at the moment as what they were, especially compared to last year,” Oscar says. “Obviously you’re still trying to do your absolute best and get the best result you can, but there's a little bit less pressure, which means you’re able to try new things and experiment a little bit more, and see how you can improve.”

That comes in tandem with the new chassis and engine regulations that were introduced by Formula 1 for the 2026 season. There has been a lot to understand across the opening half of the campaign, for drivers, teams, and spectators, with the style of driving and competition markedly different to the previous generations of cars. Every day’s a school day in Formula 1, and Oscar describes himself as being “open-minded” in evaluating different situations, which has led to learning and experimenting on-the-fly.

“I think this rule set is just so different in so many ways,” Oscar explains. “During the previous regulation changes, the cars themselves changed quite a bit, in terms of how much downforce they have or how they generate the downforce. But this regulation change has been like a completely fundamental change to how you drive a race car, in some ways. It's been a huge reset for us, for me as well. I've had to tackle things in different ways and change the way I go about some things.”

There are still swathes of lessons for a driver who is still only halfway through his fourth season in Formula 1.

“We're having to find so many new things and new ways of extracting performance out of the car and ourselves,” Oscar says. “It's quite easy to just settle into your normal rhythm and do the things you've always done, but that doesn’t always work in these cars – I think Barcelona was definitely an example of that. In Austria I felt like I really had to stretch myself a bit more and try some new things, and just go about driving in a slightly different way.

“Every car is going to need slightly different things on how to go fast, and I feel like in the last few races before the break, I've definitely discovered more and more about how the car needs to be driven, how it works, how to go quickly in it, which is not always the most obvious or natural thing.”

That ongoing adaptation isn’t just happening inside the cockpit - it’s a collaborative effort playing out across the entire paddock as everyone adjusts to the new era.

“I think we have made a lot of progress since the beginning of the season with these cars,” Oscar says. “Whether that be us as drivers getting used to them, or through the work that has been done across drivers, teams, the FIA and F1 to tweak and improve them as we’ve gone through the year.

“However, looking back at the halfway point, we still have work to do. While we can’t just make the regulations and the racing exactly how we want it as drivers - as that may make it quite boring for everyone else - there are still tweaks we can make to improve from where we are now. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do with the second part of the season and into next year.

“In terms of F1 as a sport, we've seen, especially from the last few races, where they’ve been sold out, that the sport is in a really good spot. You can see that through the fans, through to our commercial partners, and the general increase in interest in the sport across the board.”

While the sport as a whole continues to thrive off the track, the competitive picture for McLaren on it remains a work in progress as the team resets during the summer break.

Clearly, following back-to-back Constructors’ Championships across the 2024 and 2025 seasons, third position in the standings at the midway mark of 2026 is not where the team wants to be. But it acts as motivation, with the previous benchmark providing the team with a target to pursue. It is also useful to draw inspiration from the team’s turnaround during the previous regulations, where some challenging spells in 2022, and a problematic start to 2023, were followed by a resurgence that bore fruit with successive World Championship titles. Relentless work is ongoing in Woking to bring updated components to the MCL40, to continue understanding the car, and to apply any lessons to the programme for 2027 and beyond.

“It does give me confidence,” Oscar says. “When you look at the previous experience of what we've been able to achieve as a team, and how we've been able to make progress through the year, it’s good. In 2023, we were in a much worse position than where we are now, and we were able to really jump up the order to fight for podiums.

“The way that Lando and I worked together during that period to try and focus on making the car quick, so that we could then fight for the results that we wanted, hasn’t changed. It’s still strong, with productive conversations together with the team – we are all pushing toward the same goal.

“I feel like for me I've already seen it play out more than once. I think that's a real strength of the team. Yes, things are different, the cars are different, maybe the way we will make that step will look different. But we've made that step before, and I'm confident we can do it again.”

There is also no hiding behind excuses or complaining about the situation.

“We're very conscious and aware of where we sit,” Oscar says. “We're under no illusions that we're lacking some performance, and we really want to chase it. We've got good ideas on how we can do it. And I think everybody's hungry to get back to where we have been and taste that success again.”

The second half of the season will begin with the final Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, where Oscar triumphed in 2025, before we head to the Temple of Speed at Monza, ahead of a first visit to Madrid for the relocated Spanish Grand Prix. This is then followed by a busy run of Grands Prix across multiple continents.

Continuing along the upward curve remains Oscar’s target for when he climbs back into the MCL40.

“I think for myself, it's always about trying to improve and trying to learn more things,” Oscar says. “I think anything that I can learn that's going to help me when we're in a stronger position again is only going to be a good thing.

“In terms of results, I would love to be able to be challenging for wins again, as I did at the Hungaroring. If we can start challenging for wins, then we can start thinking about what we can achieve in the Championship. But first and foremost, we need to just make sure we're getting the most out of the car and ourselves every weekend. Then if we've got the car to be able to win, then we can try to win.”