Piastri in a downward 'spiral' - F1 mental game cracks title hopeful

21:36, 18 Nov

byNorberto Mujica

Oscar Piastri's loss of form has seen the Australian McLaren driver relinquish the championship lead to teammate Lando Norris, and Jenson Button believes that Piastri's identity may be the key to overcoming the current rough patch.

"When you could have done that amazing quali lap, but it just doesn't happen because you've tensed up and or maybe under driven because you don't want to crash because that's gonna lose more points. I mean it just spirals."

- Jenson Button.

Photo: Race Pictures

Since the Dutch Grand Prix Piastri has failed to ahieve pole positin, win a race or even qualify on the front row of the grid.

With Norris recording consistent podium finishes and race wins since Italy - with the exception of his P7 in Azerbaijan - the championship tables have now turned, and the confidence has swung too, in favour of the British driver, abandoning the Australian.

Speaking on Sky Sports' the F1 Show, Button assessed the current runner-up's situation.

Piastri nowhere to be seen, as spiral warning issued

"For me the big one was Mexico," Button said. "You see Lando walking away with it, [with] like a massive lead and Oscar nowhere to be seen. Really it's a tough one and we all have to deal with in a different way.

"For me it was having great people around me that could, you know, 'there's the support and also just let me know, I haven't forgotten how to drive a racing car', but it just shows you that sport in general is such a mental game."

Photo: Race Pictures

Striking a lack of talent or dedication from the list of potential causes to Piastri's dip in form, Button instead suggested the pressure of competing for a world title often "changes everything."

"When it comes down to it, that pressure in your shoulders, it changes everything. You start questioning yourself, you tighten up under pressure when you could have done that amazing quali lap, but it just doesn't happen because you've tensed up and or maybe under driven because you don't want to crash because that's gonna lose more points. I mean it just spirals," he added.

Being himself again, the key to find his previous form

However, hope is not lost for Piastri, as Button suggests that taking a step back into his own skin maybe just be the way out of the "rabbit hole."

"Just being yourself is always the best because you got there [by] being yourself, in that position.

"I think he obviously needs to look at where the car is. You can go down a rabbit hole and that's the biggest issue. Like 'well the cars work over here, I need to find a setup that works for me,' and sometimes that can be the worst thing because you don't have much testing and you try so many different things and you can get quite lost with it.

"I hope that's not the case. He's got Mark (Webber, Piastri's manager, ed.), who has a lot of experience, hopefully he's given him the positive feelings on how to handle this pressure because we want to see this title fight going on to the end.

"You never want to see a driver not performing his best because we know how good Oscar is and I want to see this fight all the way to Abu Dhabi because I'm gonna be there so I thought it'd be nice to see it first hand," Button concluded.

Norris set to equal long standing McLaren record

Norris will make his 150th race start for McLaren at the Las Vegas GP, equaling David Coulthard’s record, who started 150 Grand Prix for McLaren from 1996 to 2004, winning 12 races.

This season, Norris passed Mika Hakkinen’s 131 starts and matched Jenson Button’s 136. His McLaren contract runs until 2027, suggesting he will extend the record. Read the full story here.

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