Oscar Piastri has admitted that he’s working to change his driving style as he battles teammate Lando Norris for the championship.
Piastri now trails Norris by a single point after a dominant performance by the Brit in the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri admits to driving style change to overcome ‘strange’ pace drop
Piastri’s performance was less convincing than his teammate’s in Mexico, as he raced to fifth after qualifying only eighth.
His last podium came in Italy, at the start of September, and his most recent win was at the Dutch GP as F1 resumed after its mid-season break.
Following that Zandvoort race, Piastri held a 34-point advantage at the top of the standings.
Piastri’s drop in form has given rise for concern as Max Verstappen begins to pose an increased threat for the championship, too.
And concerningly, there is no clear reason for his woes.
A post-race investigation following the United States Grand Prix identified some issues with his car, though nothing major and certainly no silver bullet.
In Mexico, things got to the point where Piastri was left experimenting in the car in an attempt to get on top of his machine once more.
“The biggest thing is trying to learn the things I wanted to learn,” Piastri told Sky Sports of his Mexican GP.
“[In qualifying] it became obvious after the session that there was a few things that I needed to change pretty majorly in how I was driving.
“[The race] was about first trying to limit the damage, but also try and learn some things about that.
“If, I’ve made some progress with that, then I’ll be happy. But obviously, when your teammate wins the race, finishing fifth… nothing that extravagant.”
It’s been suggested that Piastri has struggled to get on top of the car at lower grip venues.
In Circuit of The Americas, the logic went that since the tyres were going to overheat regardless of a driver trying to manage them, the better alternative was simply to drive through it and live with the car moving more than usual.
Mexico was another low grip venue, as Las Vegas will be too.
But with development having stopped at McLaren some time ago, why Piastri’s struggles have manifested now remain a mystery.
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“I’ve just had to drive very differently the last couple of weekends – or, because I’ve not driven differently when I should have.
“That’s been a little bit kind of strange to get my head around, because I’ve been driving exactly the same as I have all year.
“It’s just that these last couple of weekends, the car or the tyres or something has required a different way of driving, and I’ve just not really gone to that.
“So [I] tried a few things, trying to change things up a bit.
“Once we analyse if it’s effective or not, that’ll hopefully help see some progress.
“I mean, the car’s not changed in a while now, so it’s nothing to do with the car,” he added.
“Given how the pace is differentiated the last couple of races, clearly Lando’s found it a bit easier to just dial into that.
“But I think it’s important to remember for the other 19 races, the way I’ve been driving has been working pretty well.
“It’s more about adding some tools to the toolbox rather than reinventing myself.”
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