Oscar Piastri: What’s gone wrong for F1 championship leader as Lando Norris, Max Verstappen get back into title contention | F1 News

Oscar Piastri was heavy favourite to become F1 world champion in 2025 at the end of August following a flawless performance at the Dutch Grand Prix but a run of underwhelming results have brought Lando Norris and Max Verstappen right back into the title race.

Piastri led the Drivers’ Championship by 34 points over Norris and 104 points from Verstappen just five rounds ago. Now his advantage has been cut to 14 points to Norris and 40 to Verstappen ahead of this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, live on Sky Sports F1.

The Australian is still in the best position of the title protagonists but the manner his championship advantage has dwindled will be a concern, so what’s gone wrong?

Have Monza, Singapore decisions impacted Piastri?

The first race after Zandvoort was the Italian Grand Prix at Monza where McLaren asked Piastri during Q2 to give Norris a tow to ensure the British driver reached the last part of Qualifying. Norris went on to outqualify Piastri with the McLarens in second and third behind pole-sitter Verstappen.

There was little to separate the McLarens during the 53-lap race but ahead of the only pit stop phase, Norris, unusually, let Piastri pit first, despite being ahead on track.

Norris stopped a lap later than his team-mate, but an issue with tightening the wheel nut on his front left tyre meant his stop was three seconds slower than planned and enabled Piastri to move ahead.

Piastri was asked to let Norris through and he did so although he stated: “I mean we said a slow pit stop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here. But if you really want me to do it, then I’ll do it.”

Piastri was calm when discussing the situation to the media after Monza and ahead of Baku, stating there was “another factor” for swapping. At the time, it felt like Piastri did the right thing to avoid any intra-team tension but was he perhaps more frustrated than he publicly showed?

Still, arguably the biggest development of the Monza weekend in championship terms was Verstappen and Red Bull’s sudden return to form. One year on from their worst performance of that season at the ‘Temple of Speed’, Verstappen beat the McLarens in both qualifying and the race for his first Grand Prix win in almost four months.

Throwing forward to the Singapore Grand Prix a month later though and another McLaren decision angered Piastri, this time he was more vocal on the radio.

After qualifying well in third, ahead of Norris who was fifth, it seemed like Piastri was going to extend his championship lead. However, Norris made a storming start and made an aggressive move down the inside into Turn 3 on his team-mate, touching the back of Verstappen and making contact with Piastri, who nearly went into the wall.

The stewards did not investigate the incident and the move ultimately dictated the race result with Norris on the podium and Piastri in fourth.

A furious Piastri said on the radio: “That’s not fair. I’m sorry, that’s not fair.

“If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his team-mate, then that’s a pretty **** job of avoiding.”

For a driver who is widely seen is cool and calm, Piastri was understandably livid in the heat of the moment but, similarly to Monza, cut a more measured figure out of the car. Who knows how he’s really been feeling.

Did Baku nightmare dent Piastri’s confidence?

Just one year after a stunning victory at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, things could not have gone more wrong for Piastri after a disastrous weekend this time around.

He was one of six drivers to crash in a dramatic qualifying after locking up into Turn 3 but the gusty conditions were a problem for everyone.

Starting from ninth, Piastri jumped the start and went into anti-stall so fell to the back but did not even complete the first lap as he locked up at Turn 6 by himself and crashed into the wall.

Piastri told Sky Sports F1: “Certainly not my finest moment. I just anticipated the start too much. A silly, simple error really with that.

“The crash – I just didn’t anticipate the dirty air in the way I should have. Clearly went into the corner way too hot and that was that.

“The grip level was low but I should know that. So, I’m certainly not blaming it on anything other than myself. Just didn’t make the judgement calls that I need to at the right time, and that’s obviously disappointing.”

Even the all-time greats in F1 have endured nightmare weekends but the events of Baku may have impacted Piastri’s confidence.

Indeed, team principal Andrea Stella pointed out in Austin that low grip conditions are not Piastri’s strong point which also aligns with the general pattern this year that Piastri needs time to build into a weekend with an often greasy track on Friday where he is not often at the top of the timesheets.

“I think we know with Oscar that when the conditions are such that we have low grip, you really need to challenge the car, lean on the understeer, oversteer, locking,” said Stella.

“This is an area of his driving that has an opportunity to improve and in Oscar’s standards, this means that it will improve pretty fast.

Did ‘repercussions’ chat cause underwhelming Austin?

Arguably the most unexpected story to come from a driver on media day this year came at the United States Grand Prix when it was revealed Norris had been given “repercussions” until the end of the season for his first lap move in Singapore.

Neither Norris or Piastri revealed what that consequence was but it slowly emerged over the weekend that it was something “sporting” and nothing that would happen on a Sunday.

Red Bull believe Piastri had been given garage priority in qualifying as to which driver heads out onto the track first. Whatever the repercussion was, and still perhaps is, the fact there was one did not need to be made public.

It did not give Piastri any advantage though as he was beaten by Norris in sprint qualifying then got involved in an incident at Turn 1 in the Sprint.

Piastri tried to cut back underneath Norris coming out of the first corner but was hit by Nico Hulkenberg, who had Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to the inside of him.

Brown and Stella both initially blamed Hulkenberg for the crash, but the former would later retract his criticism of the Sauber driver.

Former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick suggested Piastri had made “a bad judgement call”, while her fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok said McLaren are in a “tricky” situation after setting a “precedent” by punishing Norris for what occurred in Singapore.

The general consensus from former racing drivers was Piastri took a risk by trying to get a better run out of the corner, a risk which ended in retirement for himself and Norris.

McLaren managed to fix both cars for qualifying but Piastri was relatively uncompetitive, nearly three tenths off Norris and half a second behind pole-sitter Verstappen as he qualified sixth.

He still would have expected to come through and get onto the podium though but the championship leader could not do anything about the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton ahead and had a lonely drive to fifth in front of George Russell.

“[I’m] trying to work out why it just didn’t gel with the car this weekend is the first port of call, I guess,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1.

“It was just difficult to get into a rhythm at all and that has been the big difference compared to other circuits we have been to, even recently.”

Stella said McLaren collected “a lot of information” and had already held conversations with Piastri over his disappointing performance.

“This is certainly one of the most important points that we need to review, which is the fact that Oscar in qualifying, and in the race, he seemed to have a couple of tenths that he was not able to fully realise and that possibly was available in the car,” said Stella.

“We are actually checking that we are completely happy with the setup of the car, the setup of the floor, that everything is as intended from a car point of view.”

Was difficult run for Piastri inevitable?

You would think not, considering the eight consecutive podiums, including five victories, Piastri had in the opening nine rounds where he was the stronger of the McLaren pair

But, since Norris took on a front suspension tweak at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, which McLaren say is not an upgrade, the tide has slowly turned.

Norris was at least level with Piastri in terms of raw pace again, winning in Austria, Great Britain and Hungary. He did benefit from a Piastri penalty at Silverstone and what proved to be a better strategy in Budapest but the signs were certainly more positive.

Last year, Piastri’s biggest deficit was pure pace as he lost the qualifying head-to-head 20-4. His most impressive improvement this year was turning that around but he will be concerned that his last front row start came in Zandvoort, the last race before his recent run of mistakes and frustration cropped up.

2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button compared Piastri’s challenge to the one he faced on his way to the title in Brawn where he started the season strongly but needed to dig incredibly deep to find a way over the line.

He told Sky Sports F1: “It’s a very tricky situation Oscar finds himself in. The car isn’t performing as he would have hoped, and as it was at the start of the year. It was so strong, they were unbeatable.

“Now, you’re slightly on the back foot with the car, and personally, you’re thinking about the World Championship. So, you’re thinking about not losing points in certain races, not making mistakes, and that’s sometimes when mistakes happen.

“I will say, I’m the first person who made too many mistakes when I was fighting for my World Championship in the end. I put myself under too much pressure, and I didn’t handle that very well.

“But hopefully Oscar has learnt from other people’s failures, he’s got Mark Webber looking after him, who’s been through difficult times and keeping him positive in this scenario.”

Formula 1’s thrilling title race heads continues at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime