Follow us on Google Discover

Oscar Piastri finished fifth at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday – his lowest position in a dry race all season. It was a disappointing weekend throughout.

Piastri, who has been fourth or better in every race he’s finished since the wet season opener in Australia (P9), came home 22 seconds behind teammate Lando Norris. P6 was also his second-worst qualifying showing of the year after Azerbaijan (also P9).

Piastri had lined up third for the Sprint, having lapped three-tenths slower than his teammate. He then crashed out of the race at the first corner, an incident that also ended Norris’ afternoon.

Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 346 2 332 3 306

It’s fair to say that the Australian is now in a slump, even if his form has stabilised after the disastrous, double-crash Baku weekend. After he won at Zandvoort, he was 34 points clear of Norris and 104 ahead of Max Verstappen – those gaps have now come down to 14 and 40 respectively.

Oscar Piastri admitted that the US Grand Prix isn’t a ‘happy hunting ground’

Explaining his poor US GP weekend to outlets including The Athletic, Piastri pointed out that the Circuit of the Americas is one of his weaker tracks.

“It’s not been a particularly happy hunting ground my whole F1 career,” he said.

SESSIONPIA QPIA RNOR QNOR R2023 SPR510442023 GP10DNF222024 SPR1610432024 GP55142025 SPR3DNF2DNF2025 GP6522Oscar Piastri vs Lando Norris at the United States Grand Prix

A look at his results compared to Norris certainly supports that conclusion. He hasn’t beaten his teammate in any of the 12 competitive sessions at COTA, and he’s often failed to get particularly close.

In the past, that could have been put down to the gulf of experience. But despite being statistically better than Norris this year, the trend continued in 2025.

Max Verstappen doesn’t have any weaker tracks

The problem for Piastri is that he’s now directly up against an all-time great like Verstappen in the title fight. And that means any faults are bound to be exposed.

Even Norris says Verstappen is ‘probably’ the best F1 driver ever. He’s widely regarded as a driver with no weaknesses, and that extends to the calendar.

There are no circuits where Verstappen struggles. One doesn’t need to look at his teammates as a yardstick, as he’s almost always the faster Red Bull driver regardless.

The evidence is more obvious – Verstappen has won at 23 of the 24 venues in the schedule. Yes, Singapore is the outlier, but this was the team’s bogey circuit in an otherwise perfect 2023, and the Dutchman has still scored three podiums on his last five visits to Marina Bay.

Piastri is going up against a driver who is almost robotic in his consistency. Crucially, he still has a healthy lead, but he must start getting the best out of himself and his McLaren car again to stop it disappearing – even when he’s not at one of his favoured tracks.