Australian stars hit back after Sky Sports pundits' heavy criticism of Piastri

Sky Sports pundits Rosberg and Villeneuve discussed Piastri's 2026 form during the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. The Australian finished fifth after the late retirements of Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc. So far this season, Piastri has recorded two podium finishes, in Japan and Miami.

Rosberg was the first to begin: "It’s not going too well for him as of late. His market value has taken a bit of a plunge in the last weeks and months. It’s a bit strange, and he really needs to work on that now, because he’s falling down."

Villeneuve then added: "We saw the trend last year. Halfway through the season he was the talk of the paddock…, and then he collapsed, and his form went down, and he hasn’t recovered. It’s really odd. Nobody’s talking about him anymore, and that’s in the space of, what, six months, even less. It’s very odd."

2007 Supercars champion Garth Tander told MotorRacing 360: "I thought their take as very odd, the way that they have rated Oscar’s season so far. "He’s only five points behind Lando. Oscar didn’t have a great weekend at Barcelona, but that’s one weekend."

As GPblog previously reported that the Australian was the most serious option to replace Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing should the Dutchman decide to leave his current outfit, Tander also used the same hypothetical transfers to demonstrate how teams rate Piastri.

He added: "They’re only going to call one person to fill Max Verstappen’s seat. Who do you reckon that might be? Oscar Piastri. If a seat became available at Mercedes that Max Verstappen isn’t filling, who do you reckon they’re calling? Oscar Piastri. His name will be at the top of every team’s list if there was availability to get him. I don’t get that take at all."

James Courtney, the 2010 Supercars champion, also joined in defending Piastri. He added: "I think it’s a pretty harsh summary of his season. I think McLaren as a team hasn’t shined, so then it’s hard for him to look good.

He concluded: "For [Rosberg and Villeneuve] to come out with that, I think it’s incredibly harsh. Maybe they’ve just been out of it a little too long. I think there are a lot of things going against at the moment."

Speaking to GPblog, among others, after the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, the Australian driver explained. "I was trying a lot of different things and running into a lot of different problems. So I think just struggling a lot with grip, tyre life obviously. So I don't have any answers at the moment. I'm sure there will be some answers later. But yeah, I was surprised to struggle so much.

"So, I think it's all perfectly explainable. Just we're always lacking that last tenth or two, or in my case today, a lot more than that. You know, when you're trying to chase that last little bit, things are a bit uncomfortable. We need to put the car in a place it doesn't always like to be, and that comes with some challenges," Piastri concluded.