Oscar Piastri saw his comfortable lead turn to a deficit in a few races. In the first 16 races of 2025, he achieved 14 podiums. This was followed by four races without a top-3. A 34-point lead after the Dutch GP disappeared in five races.<\/p>\n
The crash in Azerbaijan did not help. But in Austin and Mexico, Piastri was simply too slow. It happened suddenly and sharply. This created a lot of question marks.<\/p>\n
Accusations quickly circulated on social media that McLaren would favour Norris. That theory is unlikely. McLaren has no interest in deliberately disadvantaging a driving championship contender.<\/p>\n
If the team wants to help one driver above the rest, that choice should also benefit from the points battle with Verstappen. Putting Piastri so far back that he even falls behind Verstappen has no logic there.<\/p>\n
McLaren and Piastri himself point to something else. The combination of lots of sliding and little grip in Austin and Mexico requires a different way of driving than at many other tracks this season.<\/p>\n
According to the team, that way of driving suits Lando Norris more naturally. He steers with a lot of feeling. He combines steering movements and throttle very precisely. This allows him to dance through a corner with small glides and load the car at the front.<\/p>\n
Piastri drives differently. He brakes later and turns the wheel earlier. This works very well at high grip and high speed. But at low grip or when the car starts to slide in a certain way, he loses confidence. His effort on corner entry becomes more cautious. That was visible in qualifying in Mexico.<\/p>\n
In Mexico, Piastri said he \u201chad to change some things quite a bit in how I drive\u201d. He did not describe it as a totally different driving style. He talked about adding extra tools to his arsenal.<\/p>\n
He experimented during the race. Some of that went well. But many of the losses were small and spread over each sector. Added up, those small differences added up quickly. As a result, even his usual strengths were less.<\/p>\n
Piastri shows willingness to learn. That is positive. He acknowledges that the last few weekends required a different approach. He does not want to change rigidly for normal circumstances.<\/p>\n
If Brazil and other tracks better suit his natural style again, he should soon return to the level of most of his races this year. If the dip continues, his title fight will fall apart completely. That will then raise new questions about the cause.<\/p>\n
For now, the explanation seems technical and stylistic rather than deliberate sabotage. Piastri has work to do. But he also has the right attitude to take advantage of it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What happened to Piastri? Oscar Piastri saw his comfortable lead turn to a deficit in a few races. In the first 16 races of 2025, he achieved 14 podiums. This was followed by four races without a top-3. A 34-point lead after the Dutch GP disappeared in five races. The crash in [...]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formule-1"],"yoast_head":"\n