Why Piastri has the most cause for concern ahead of F1 season conclusion

At Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix, Piastri had taken the chequered flag for the seventh time this season, the final defining piece of his maiden 'grand chelem' of pole position, fastest lap and leading every lap en route to victory.

Behind the Australian, team-mate Lando Norris — who had been running a long-time second — suffered his first mechanical retirement in 62 races, stretching back to the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The healthiest cushion of the season for either driver of 34 points had suddenly appeared.

As for four-time Champion Max Verstappen, despite inheriting Norris' runner-up position in front of his home fans, he appeared a bit-part player at that stage, 104 points adrift. It was a two-horse race, it seemed, heavily weighted in Piastri's favour.

Over the course of the season up until that point, there appeared to be little to fluster Piastri. Whoever you listened to, whatever you read, he was being described as this cool, calm, calculated character, a contrast to the more angst-ridden Norris, who was all too often berating himself for his mistakes, no matter how minor, albeit a part of who he is.

Whilst there were obviously no guarantees at that point after Zandvoort, after a run of 13 podiums in 14 races (seven wins, three runner-up finishes and three third positions) anyone betting would have backed Piastri to go on and finish the job.

But this is Formula 1, and in the space of those two months and five races, Piastri has gone from a relatively healthy position and being the hunted, to one where he appears bereft of ideas regarding his dramatic loss of form, and now the hunter.

Norris' consummate performance in Mexico City, where Piastri was alarmingly off the pace in the same car spec, means the Briton has a one-point lead going into the final four Grands Prix. It is the first time he has led the Championship since Bahrain in mid-April.

As for Verstappen, an astonishing charge in a revised Red Bull that has provided him with the aerodynamic grip and balance so sorely lacking before August's summer break means he has become a thorn in the side of the McLaren duo. The Dutchman is now just 36 points adrift of Norris, with 116 still available from the remaining four Grands Prix and two sprints.

Of the trio, Piastri has the most cause for concern. It was clear after the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where he started eighth — a staggering six-tenths of a second adrift of Norris in qualifying — and finished 42 seconds down in fifth, that something somewhere has gone awry.

Piastri spoke post-race of "trying a lot of different things" to "unlock the pace of the car," which on his side of the garage was sorely missing.

Worse still, in a car previously so dominant, at this stage of the campaign Piastri was also left to reflect that "for the last couple of weekends [the MCL39] has required a very different way of driving.”

"What's worked well for me in the previous 18 races has needed something very different the last couple of weekends. I'm trying to wrap my head around why it's been a bit of a struggle."

Piastri said that in the race in Mexico, he was left "trying to experiment" because "driving the way I've had to drive these last couple weekends is not particularly natural for me."

As to what to expect going into the final four races, starting with Brazil in early November, he said: "Difficult to know. The pace of the car has been strong, but I've just not really been able to unlock it that much.

"We'll learn if we changed some things and made progress. If I have, that'll leave me relatively happy. If there are still some things to learn, then it's back to the drawing board a bit."

At this stage of the season, they are not words any driver should be airing, particularly regarding a car that has remained stable for a period of time, without any upgrades, given the team's decision to stop development early to focus on the major regulation change for 2026.

But then, is it the car or is it the driver?

There has been a sequence of events after Zandvoort that have combined to throw Piastri in the position he now finds himself, starting with the following race at Monza where he was asked to hand back second place to Norris after the latter suffered a slow pit stop.

McLaren's 'papaya rules' came into effect there as Piastri felt the incident was a natural part of racing. Nevertheless, he had to acquiesce, resulting in a six-point swing in Norris' favour.

On to Baku, and the most damaging weekend from a psychological perspective for Piastri, who crashed in qualifying and again on the first lap of the race. Not just one rare error from the 24-year-old, but two in such close succession must surely have left him with dark clouds forming in the back of his mind.

In Singapore, there was the Turn 3 contact with Norris on the first lap, leading to a very unhappy Piastri over the radio believing he should have been handed back the position, feeling he had been bumped out by his team-mate, who had initially touched Verstappen as he attacked through the corner.

The FIA took no action, and the team chose not to intervene at the time. A post-race review, however, led to "repercussions" for Norris, although McLaren refused to divulge what they were.

In Austin, Piastri spiralled further downwards by playing a key role in the Turn 1 crash in the United States sprint that took him and Norris out of the race. Whatever slight advantage Piastri might have had up his sleeve for the previously mentioned repercussions against Norris, they were cancelled out by that incident.

And then, from a disappointing sixth on the grid for the Grand Prix, he could do no better than fifth behind race-winner Verstappen and second-placed Norris. These appear to be worrying times for Piastri and his Championship challenge.

Yet, Team Principal Andrea Stella felt that Piastri had every reason, like Norris, to be "encouraged and optimistic for the final part of the season," despite a different picture being painted.

Explaining what unfolded for Piastri in Mexico City, and to an extent in Austin, Stella said that following a qualifying review, the team "extracted some important information in terms of how the car needs to be driven in special low-grip conditions" as encountered at both circuits.

"You have to drive the car in a way to adapt to it sliding, and this is not necessarily the way in which Oscar feels he is producing lap time," said Stella. "So, we identified a few things that we could do with the car and a few things that he could do with the driving.”

"Oscar should be very proud of himself, of how he handled the transition [from qualifying to race]. We could see in the race that he was applying this, and he definitely had a more competitive pace [than in qualifying].

"It's important for Oscar that we go through this kind of experience in which we learn new tools to add to the toolbox, because that's how you become the most complete version of a Formula 1 driver.

"And this is also important for the next four races, in which we're going to again find different conditions. So, we need to be ready for all of them. Oscar took a lot of learning from the weekend, and that's the sort of investment you make to ensure that you are competitive in every condition in the final part of the season."

Piastri better hope Stella is right; if there is a repeat in São Paulo of what was witnessed in Austin and Mexico City, then perhaps the greater perception will be that his demise is more down to himself and what has transpired over the past two months than anything car related.  

Images courtesy of Getty Images.