McLaren suspects Oscar Piastri's deficit to Lando Norris at Spa-Francorchamps stems from power unit algorithms, not driving. Piastri qualified two tenths behind Norris, losing time on the straight between Stavelot and Bus Stop Chicane during derating phase. Team boss Andrea Stella says the loss has "nothing to do with Oscar's driving" but rather "minor deviation in how the power unit was operated."

Stella sees similar issues at Mercedes works team between George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. The 2026 regulations' complex energy deployment has power units learning on the fly, building information banks from previous runs. Piastri's missed Friday track time and Q1 gravel excursion likely disrupted his power unit's predictive calculations.

Drivers now fight their own power unit's machine learning algorithms rather than just rivals. At high-speed Spa with few braking zones, focus shifts to optimizing harvesting techniques. Russell said his "whole focus for the last 36 hours has been on straightline speed." Stella notes variations affect braking points: "if you have an additional amount of energy harvesting before braking, then you are approaching the braking zone 10km/h slower."

The unpredictability makes drivers long for Hungaroring's stop-start nature over traditional favorite Spa. As Stella explains, power units "forward thinks, forward calculates" with live calculations, making offline simulation insufficient even at race 10.