{"id":195469,"date":"2025-10-07T13:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195469\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T13:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:49:07","slug":"oscar-piastri-called-thinned-skinned-as-tables-turn-in-mclaren-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/195469\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri called ‘thinned-skinned’ as tables turn in McLaren title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

After months questioning the driver\u2019s mental strength, Ralf Schumacher has turned his focus from Lando Norris to Oscar Piastri.<\/p>\n

Crashing out on the opening lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after first crashing in qualifying, Piastri bounced back in Singapore to put his McLaren P3 on the grid to Norris\u2019 P5.<\/p>\n

Is Oscar Piastri starting to crack?<\/p>\n

But as the Briton got a better start, storming off of the grid to fight Max Verstappen and Piastri for second place, the teammates made contact with Piastri coming off second best.<\/p>\n

The Australian initially urged McLaren to intervene.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean that wasn\u2019t very team like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He then added: \u201cSo, are we cool with Lando just barging me out of the way? What\u2019s the go there?\u201d<\/p>\n

But as McLaren<\/a>\u2018s decision not to do so became evident, he complained: \u201cThat\u2019s not fair, I\u2019m sorry, that\u2019s not fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he has to avoid another car by crashing into his teammate, then that\u2019s a pretty **** job of avoiding.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the first time that the cool and calm headed Piastri showed any weakness, with even his Baku crashes not raising eyebrows in quite the same manner that his Singapore complaints did.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri v Lando Norris: F1 2025 head-to-head stats<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n

According to former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, it was the first sign of Piastri being \u201cthinner-skinned\u201d than his teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not Norris\u2019 intention. But that can also go wrong,\u201d he said of the Turn 3 contact in his Sky Deutschland\u2019s coverage of the Singapore Grand Prix. \u201cLando is doing a good job, had a good start. <\/p>\n

\u201cPiastri was also annoyed that Lando got past him. The contact does happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cOscar shows more nerves now. He\u2019s definitely thinner-skinned now on the radio and in front of the microphones.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was notably change in tone from Schumacher, who previously questioned whether Norris had the mental strength to win the title.<\/p>\n

Saying in 2024 that Norris \u201curgently needed\u201d to change his mental approach, Schumacher added earlier this year: \u201cHe\u2019s just a bit softer in character. I think that\u2019s what makes him who he is and makes him likeable. But of course, no one cares about that on the race track; that\u2019s where he has to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cOscar Piastri has the necessary toughness to pull it off. In my opinion, Lando would always brake again.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, though, was before the pressure of a title fight settled on the shoulders of the McLaren teammates\u2026<\/p>\n

Piastri sits 22 points ahead of Norris with six grands prix and three Sprints remaining.<\/p>\n

Read next: F1 fans firmly split on Norris-Piastri contact as McLaren title race hots up<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After months questioning the driver\u2019s mental strength, Ralf Schumacher has turned his focus from Lando Norris to Oscar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,1737,913,44,2333,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-195469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-lando-norris","15":"tag-mclaren","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-oscar-piastri","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}