The Australian was pressuring Leclerc for third during the opening stint when the pair made contact at Les Combes, with part of Piastri’s car breaking away in the incident and causing floor damage to his car.
Leclerc was investigated by the stewards but escaped punishment, leaving Piastri surprised after he felt there was nowhere for him to go as he attempted the move.
“I lost the side board thing. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t call it a sideboard, that’s something you put in your hallway! But I lost parts of my car,” Piastri told Sky Sports.
“And I don’t know where I was supposed to go. So I was equally surprised that nothing came.
“But obviously it’s small contact which had big consequences for me. Could have had very big consequences for both of us. But it is what it is.”
McLaren later confirmed the contact had cost Piastri floor performance, contributing to balance problems and increased tyre degradation through the remainder of the race.
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Piastri remained in the fight near the front and spent much of the afternoon battling Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and teammate Lando Norris, but was unable to progress beyond fifth on the road.
He said the damage made the car particularly difficult during the opening stint before McLaren was able to partly compensate following his pit stop.
Whoa! 😮
Contact between Leclerc and Piastri in the battle for P3 💥#F1 #BelgianGP | LAP 8/44 pic.twitter.com/UDl5E0DXS6
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 19, 2026
“I think from then on the race was definitely more difficult,” he said.
“The balance suffered quite a lot for the first stint after that, and then we were able to compensate a bit in the second stint and the pace seemed better again.
“But yeah, it was just a bit of a tricky race from then on.”
Team principal Andrea Stella said the loss of downforce had a significant impact on Piastri’s race, particularly as the Australian attempted to extract pace from the tyres.
“Because of losing the board, we lost between five and 10 points of downforce, dependent on the condition,” Stella told Sky Sports.
“And obviously when you have to find pace pushing the tyres, then the tyres may degrade more. That’s when we see the pace of stint one and stint two for Oscar.
“We see that to say that he’s using the tyres a lot, and then the tyres kind of give you the bill at the end of the stint.”
Despite the result, Piastri believed there were encouraging signs from McLaren after a difficult run of form, although he warned the team remained too inconsistent.
The 25-year-old also revealed a power unit anomaly had compromised his final qualifying lap, contributing to a weekend in which the team’s true level of performance was difficult to judge.
“We’re a bit inconsistent at the moment,” Piastri admitted.
“This weekend we did look better. Even yesterday for myself. Q3 there was a power unit anomaly, and the rest of my lap was good.
“Like there’s just a lot of things that skew the picture a bit at the moment. I think hopefully we can get on top of those bits first.”
McLaren will introduce further upgrades at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Piastri hopeful they will make the car easier to operate consistently rather than merely adding outright performance.
“But also some upgrades will definitely help because the car can be quick on a day like today, but extracting the pace out of it is very, very tough,” he said.
“So hopefully that makes us quicker and a little bit more consistent.”
Norris was even more encouraged by McLaren’s race pace after recovering from 13th on the grid to finish seventh, narrowly missing out on sixth following a late pursuit of Isack Hadjar.
The reigning world champion believed a slow pit stop had cost him around five seconds and prevented him from challenging Piastri and the cars further ahead.
“The bad part today was just the pit stop. The pit stop cost us, I don’t know, five seconds or something,” Norris told Sky Sports.
“So that’s easily points on Hadjar and probably a gap that I could have caught to the cars ahead of that, even to Oscar. So a shame.
“Just everything that could have made my life tough today came my way. Obviously starting with a P13, but the pace was very, very strong. Probably the best pace we’ve had all season.
“Honestly I think we had peace to win the race today. Which is very positive.”
Norris was less certain the performance would translate to other circuits, pointing to McLaren’s struggles at Silverstone despite making no major changes to the car.
“We’ve not really changed anything since last weekend,” he said.
“We’ve of course tried to optimise the car, but If we go back to Silverstone, we’re still going to be miles off and we’re still going to struggle.
“So we have to understand why this track was a bit better for us. And just hope that the rest of the season is the same.”
Stella agreed McLaren had been more competitive than the final result suggested, believing Norris would have been in podium contention without his grid penalty and pit stop delay.
“I think today starting from P3, Lando would have been in contention for a podium. We saw a really strong pace in the race,” he said.
“In reality his race starting from P13 was strong in catching up at the start. But then the timing of the Virtual Safety Car and also the time we lost at the pitstop for a technical problem meant that Lando couldn’t do any better than P7.
“But definitely our car today for a podium finish, which is encouraging.”
McLaren now turns its attention to Hungary next weekend, where Stella expected Ferrari to again emerge as a major threat around the more corner-dependent Hungaroring.
He said the incoming package would target McLaren’s lack of grip through the corners, although further developments would still be required during the second half of the campaign.
“We have some upgrades coming for this already in Hungary. We need even more that what comes in Hungary will come for the following races,” Stella said.
“Our objectives are very clear. Not all will be solved in the coming race, but hopefully in the second part we will be there contending for victories.”
The result in Belgium means Piastri remains sixth in the drivers’ championship, holding a one-point advantage over Max Verstappen, while Norris sits fifth and 11 points clear of his teammate.
McLaren also retains third in the constructors’ standings, 44 points ahead of Red Bull in fourth.
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