McLaren explains Piastri’s US GP struggles relative to Norris

McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella says “a couple of features” explain Oscar Piastri’s atypically uncompetitive pace this weekend at the United States Grand Prix.

Piastri was three tenths down on team-mate Lando Norris in free practice and both qualifying sessions, marking some of his worst drives of the season in terms of one-lap pace.

The championship leader lamented a lack of confidence in the car due to its unpredictability, which Stella confirmed while explaining Piastri hasn’t made his usual progress as the weekend goes on.

“Oscar has been a couple of tenths behind Lando in pretty much all sessions, while in reality we are used to seeing an Oscar that catches and develops through the weekend,” the Italian pointed out. “So if anything, this is what has been missing so far.

“But it's been a bit of an untidy event with missing the sprint [due to the first-lap collision] and for Oscar that needed to find some confidence, pushing the car when you have this low level of grip, the bumps, hot temperature and also very windy. So you do have to get in tune with your car to understand how much you can push.

“There was an interesting comment by Oscar echoed by Lando – they said, ‘today the car needs to be driven at the limit of locking the four tyres’. Like, if you just drive too gentle because you can't cope with a wind gust or you just want to have a prudent approach to driving, you're not going to generate lap time. So you sort of have to lean onto the limit. And if you lean onto the limit, you need to have a certain rhythm and a certain confidence.

“So if anything, this is this aspect that is missing on Oscar's side, but when it's so tight, then from a positional point of view, a couple of tenths may cost five positions on the grid. So I think we see a little bit of rhythm for Oscar, but also we see the implications of how tight the field is at this stage of the season.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Piastri’s struggle led to a lowly sixth position on today’s starting grid – his second-lowest this season after Baku, where he crashed in Q3.

The Australian has scored just 27 points since the start of September, with championship rivals Norris and Verstappen on 39 and 76 respectively, meaning the title race is tighter than it had been for a long time.

However, Piastri refuted the idea that the tide was turning to his team-mate’s advantage in terms of performance.

“Here has been a struggle for me; I don't feel like I've made any major mistakes or from a driving side of things, you know, it's just not clicked,” he said. “It's not been so much of overdriving, I just haven't felt comfortable with the car really. So I think that's been the story of this weekend, but I don't think it's been the story of the last few.”