Jacques Villeneuve has said Oscar Piastri needs to “get back into a comfortable, calm zone”, in order to help his driving in the season run-in.
Having held the World Championship lead for over six months, a dominant victory for Lando Norris coupled with fifth place for Piastri meant the McLaren teammates swapped places in the standings for the first time since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri ‘big issue’ identified after recent result dip
Piastri had qualified seventh for the Mexico City Grand Prix, and managed to make up places in the race – with one daring move on George Russell at Turn 1 seeing him finish fifth on the day.
That deficit to Norris now sees him one point behind his McLaren colleague heading into the final four races, with the Australian having referenced that “the last couple of weekends has required a very different way of driving” compared to most of the season to date, which he is trying to rectify heading into the next round in Brazil.
Having been behind Norris on pace all weekend in what is his first title challenge, 1997 World Champion Villeneuve believes a return to his calmer demeanour will help push him back in the right direction.
As for his race in Mexico, the Canadian feels the young Australian is still not out of the fight just yet.
“He salvaged the weekend,” Villeneuve said of Piastri on Sky F1.
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“It wasn’t an impressive drive in the fact that he overtook and and got back to like a podium finish, helped by the 10 seconds [penalty] of Lewis [Hamilton], he overtook in the pit stop as well, and that just gave him enough points to not be completely out.
“He’s only one point behind Lando now, but still hard to swallow for him.”
While Norris acknowledged he has been feeling more comfortable in the car of late, with work behind the scenes with his engineers to optimise setups over the course of a weekend, it was put to Villeneuve that matching Norris’ needs may have helped Piastri – which he felt was not the case.
When it comes to the rest of the title battle, however, slight changes in driving have made a big difference, and the McLaren driver should look to move away from “driving tight” in the final rounds.
On Norris’ setup, Villeneuve added: “Probably tried it, but every driver on the planet drives differently. You cannot just put a setup and it will work on everyone, it has to be natural.
“Lando is probably driving better than he was before, so he’s made a little step, and Oscar is driving a little bit worse, and then that increases the step.
“If he’s a little bit stressed and drives tight, not comfortable, not smooth and soft, that will take away a little bit as well, and he will never find the balance in the car. So that’s the big issue. He needs to get back into a comfortable, calm zone.”
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