Buy tickets<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWith these new regulations, new cars, Oscar is not feeling too comfortable yet. So it\u2019s a bit strange and he really needs to work on that now because he\u2019s falling down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosberg\u2019s assessment was followed by an even sharper verdict from 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who claimed the Australian\u2019s form had dipped dramatically since being one of the paddock\u2019s major talking points last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell we saw the trend last year. Halfway through the season he was the talk of the paddock, like it\u2019s great they signed him because he showed it in Formula 3, Formula 2 \u2013 amazing,\u201d Villeneuve said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then he collapsed, and his form went down, and he hasn\u2019t recovered. It\u2019s really odd.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd nobody\u2019s talking about him anymore. And that\u2019s in the space of what? \u2013\u00a0like six months. Even less.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very odd. But like we often say, you\u2019re only as good as your last race. That\u2019s what\u2019s tough with sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless you\u2019re Lewis and you\u2019ve won so many championships and so on. Then, okay, you get there\u2019s something you can lean on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut otherwise, two, three bad races, and okay, move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the criticism, Piastri\u2019s comparison with Norris in 2026 remains close across the opening phase of the season.<\/p>\n
The Australian still leads Norris 4-3 in both qualifying and race results, trails his McLaren teammate by only five points in the drivers\u2019 championship and has matched Norris with two podiums.<\/p>\n
However, Barcelona proved a difficult afternoon for Piastri, who was unable to convert his early pressure on Verstappen into a pass and later lost out to Hamilton as Ferrari\u2019s strategy and race pace came alive.<\/p>\n
Piastri acknowledged McLaren had work to do after Ferrari\u2019s upgraded package helped Hamilton claim his first victory in red, with the Briton leading home George Russell by 19.4 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think yes. They\u2019ve been very, very close to us, or us and Ferrari have been very close for the first part of the year,\u201d Piastri said when asked if Ferrari had made a significant step.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the last couple of weekends, they were probably a bit of a step ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this weekend with all their new parts, clearly they\u2019re working well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think also in a race like today where the grip is so low, the tyres are so fragile. I think it probably plays to the strengths of their car as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they\u2019ve got a lot of downforce. Probably the most downforce out of everybody. But also a lot of drag.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you need to protect the tyres, I think that helps you.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo clearly some work for us to do, clearly some work for me to do, because it was not an easy race.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLaren are 121 points behind leaders Mercedes in the constructors\u2019 championship and 49 points behind second-placed Ferrari.<\/p>\n
Superb Hamilton takes first Ferrari win in Barcelona as Antonelli retires late<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has come under fire from two F1 world champs. Image: XPB Images The Australian looked set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,352805,13207,913,806,805,803,804,849,2333,9910,85],"class_list":["post-736867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barcelona-catalunya-gp","tag-jacques-villeneuve","tag-mclaren","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-nico-rosberg","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736867","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=736867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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