Oscar Piastri has struggled to match his title rival and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in recent weeks because he was “already at the limit”, says 1997 Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve.
Piastre appeared to be heading for a first drivers’ championship when he won the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August to take his seventh win in the first 15 rounds to move 34 points clear of Norris.
However, the 24-year-old Australian has not won in five races since then, and his failure to finish on the podium in the last four allowed Norris to reclaim the championship lead for the first time since April with a dominant victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
With four rounds remaining, starting with this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Villeneuve is unsure whether Piastre can find the form to overturn his one-point deficit.
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Highlights of the Mexico City Grand Prix
“We didn’t have an extremely fantastic Lando at the start of the season, not the Lando we had at the end of last year,” Villeneuve told Ski Sports. The F1 Show. “And we kept saying, ‘oh, it’s because Piastre has stepped up, now he’s on Lando’s pace and even faster’.
“But was Piastri actually boosted or was Lando just not up to it? He kept saying he wasn’t very comfortable with the car. And maybe that made Piastri a little complacent. When all you have to fight for is your teammate, maybe you don’t push to that last limit, that last tenth of a second.
“All of a sudden we get Buck and we get Max who wins everything. And Lando stepped up. Lando is driving faster and better than he has been all season.”
“Piastri doesn’t boost. He was already at his limit. And when you do that, when you have to go those two tenths extra, and all of a sudden, you find problems in the car that weren’t there.”
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McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had a disastrous first lap at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, crashing out of the race after hitting the wall
The lead Piastri built earlier in the season was based on consistency, but mistakes have crept into his driving in recent weeks.
Piastri crashed out of qualifying and the race in Azerbaijan, and also tried to overtake which put him and Norris out of the Austin Sprint.
Villeneuve added: “When you drive within the limits, the car is perfect. It’s easy, you drive, you save tires. And suddenly, you have to go a couple of tenths faster. You can’t drive the car anymore. Everything is wrong. You don’t know why.
“The McLaren car hasn’t evolved that much, so there’s no reason to drive it differently. The same tires, they don’t change. Sometimes they’re softer, sometimes they’re not. The track is warmer and so on, but there’s not that big of a difference.
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Watch the most controversial moments between teammates Lando Norris and Oskar Pjastri
“It just takes your teammate stepping up a little bit. And you realize, ‘oh, how do I do that?’ And all of a sudden, you’re driving hard, it’s not doing anything, and that’s it. It gets into your head. And you just get slower and slower and slower, and you start making up settings that don’t exist.
“You start to doubt your driving style. You look at the data and say, ‘oh, my teammate is a tenth faster in that corner, I have to drive differently.’ And then it goes wrong. You have to remember what you were doing that was good and just go a little bit further.”
Brundle: Accidents in Baku derailed Piastri
After the first race of the season, where a spin in the wet saw Piastri drop from contention for the win to ninth place, the Australian finished in the top 4 in the next 15 races, missing out on the podium just twice.
The weekend in Baku, where he crashed twice and also jumped at the start, ended that streak. He has since finished fourth in Singapore, before taking fifth in Austin and Mexico City.
Ski Sports F1 Martin Brundle believes that Piastre has failed to fully recover from his struggles in Baku.
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Martin Brundle talks about the favorites of the Formula 1 championship
“Baku would blow his brains out,” Brundle told Ski Sports. The F1 Show. “It’s been a very difficult weekend for him with two times in the hurdles and the jump and he seems to have gone off the rails.”
“Something happened in Oscar’s head. Have we seen any signs of this before in his previous junior races or F1 seasons? It’s worth looking at.”
“But something just went wrong and he lost a bit of confidence. And the way these cars are cornering and how close the competition is at the moment, you just have to be touched.”
“He needs a very solid weekend. Is there a lot going on in his ears? We’ve described him as horizontal almost all season because that’s what he’s looked like. He’s always been so calm on the radio, not letting things get to him. And all of a sudden, that glass ceiling, that facade, whatever it is, seems to be gone from him and he’s struggling.
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Brundle dismissed the idea that McLaren have an advantage in terms of which of their drivers wins the title, insisting the team will be desperate for Piastre to return to form.
“Rest assured, a team is not spending $400 million a year and has 1,500 employees and is trying to make one of their cars go a little slower.
“Everyone connected with Oscar’s car will want to turn it around soon, like in Brazil.”
“His wins earlier in the season, his opening season was so stunning, you suddenly forget how to do it.
The thrilling race for the Formula 1 title continues in Brazil with a sprint weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Ski Sports from NOW – no contract, cancel anytime