BERNIE COLLINS slams McLaren’s tyre risk that dumped Piastri in P13

October 31, 2026

• BERNIE COLLINS, Sky Sports analyst and former F1 strategy engineer, identified McLaren’s decision to run a used soft tyre first in Q2 as the key error costing Piastri a top-10 start.
• Collins explained McLaren saved a fresh set of softs — likely for race day — but the gamble backfired when Piastri, forced out early, had only one flying lap on the new tyre and couldn’t deliver.
• With Piastri nine-tenths behind teammate Norris, Collins noted the approach diverged from standard Q2 practice, where teams run new rubber first to assess lap time before committing.
• Piastri will start P13 in Mexico, snapping a 2026 run of top-eight qualifying results in every Grand Prix — a costly outlier that Collins pins squarely on team strategy, not driver error.

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