LAS VEGAS.- Mental or technical problem? After a solid start to the season, Oscar Piastri has seen his performance plummet in the last two months, to the point that his teammate in McLaren, Lando Norrishas taken the lead in the world championship from Formula 1.
It is a slowdown that is difficult to explain in the final stretch of the fight for the crown. The figures perfectly illustrate this clear decline in form for the 24-year-old Australian, both in the race and in qualifying.
In the first 15 rounds of the season, the Melbourne-born driver had achieved five pole positions and five second places on the grid. But in the last six Grand Prix he has never started from the front row.
The weekend in Baku marked a real turning point, as Piastri, who was already far on the grid (9th) after his accident in qualifying, practically stalled at the start and came last, before ending up against a wall a few corners later.
The abandonment, which the Australian attributed to “silly mistakes”, put an end to a magnificent streak of 34 consecutive races in which he had scored points.
Are we facing a cause and effect relationship? Piastri, practically blameless until then, multiplied the errors in Baku just after the controversy that arose in Monza.
“It seems strange to me”
In Italy, the McLaren team asked Piastri to let Norris pass after the latter had problems changing tires.
The Australian had taken second place, but the team ordered him to give up his position to the Briton.
This unjustified request raised suspicions of favoritism towards the Englishman, although McLaren and the Australian rejected this idea.
Without this instruction, Piastri would have extended his lead at the top of the championship to 37 points. Instead, he left Italy with 31 points on Norris and, probably, resentment towards his team.
“It’s inexplicable. You can not be satisfied with your team, but you can’t forget how to drive from one weekend to the next,” stressed the French driver. Pierre Gaslyof Alpineto AFP.
“He has performed very well throughout the year, he was less than a tenth behind his teammate and, suddenly, in the last few races, he finds himself six tenths behind! It seems strange to me,” he added.
However, in the run-up to the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will be held on Saturday night, Piastri said on Thursday that he understood the reasons for his disappointing results in the last two months, although he did not explain them.
On the horns of a dilemma
“In Austin and Mexico, something fundamental was not working, hence the lack of rhythm. The weekend in Baku was what it was,” said the Australian. “But in the other races, it was a combination of several little things that didn’t work, although the pace was pretty good.”
With his back against the wall, Piastri indicated, however, that he had no intention of changing his approach to the final three weekends of the season.
“I’m going to keep the same approach, try to get the most out of my car, because that will help me win the races and it will help me in the championship,” he explained.
“Now it’s going to be difficult to win (the title). But this mentality of approaching each race wanting to give everything is the right attitude.”
Although he acknowledged that the last few weeks had not been as productive as the previous ones, the Australian considered that this had allowed him to learn.
“I’ve been especially solid in the first half of the season. Even though I’m not doing so well now, I don’t think I should have done things differently lately,” he stressed. “I always try to learn from every mistake.”
With 24 points behind Norris and only three races left, the good Australian student must right the course this weekend in Las Vegas if he does not want the title to slip out of his hands.
