Piastri resents McLaren's direction change after Norris' dominant win
Photo: Race Pictures
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Oscar Piastri saw 'flashes' of his old self in Brazil, but stated that McLaren had slowed between Friday and Sunday, a weekend throughout which teammate Lando Norris dominated unopposed.
"I think even just our pace as a team, I don't think was as strong as it was on Friday."- Oscar Piastri.
Oscar Piastri now sits 24 points off Lando Norris' lead in the Standings. Photo: Race Pictures
That things are not going well for the Aussie title challenger is obvious by the number of crashes and mistakes he's made in recent races. In Brazil, though, Piastri claims to have experience flashes of comfort aboard his MCL39 which, in his view, suffered a performance decline as the weekend progressed.
"Things have not been going easily, that's for sure, I think," he said after the race in Sao Paulo. "This weekend, there were definitely moments and flashes where I felt very comfortable. In practice, things were coming much more easily again.
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"Things felt really good. It kind of went away from us a little bit through the weekend. I think even just our pace as a team, I don't think was as strong as it was on Friday. The car kind of went in a direction that I wasn't a big fan of, but we tried our best to get the car in a good window."
Already in the Sprint race on Saturday morning, his hopes of having a successful Sprint weekend went awry as a Turn 3 crash cut his race short, one of the many things Piastri claims are currently "going wrong."
He continued: "Obviously, the sprint crash made things much more difficult as well. So, you know, there's just a lot of things going wrong at the moment."
"But I think there's still flashes of really strong pace and it's just about trying to make sure I've got that all the time," he concluded.
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Piastri now trails Norris by 24 points in the Standings, and is now only 25 points ahead of Verstappen, over whom he held a 104 points advantage after the Dutch Grand Prix.
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Piastri urged to leave McLaren
Former Haas boss Guenther Steiner says Oscar Piastri should leave McLaren at the end of his current contract if he hasn’t won the championship, arguing he could secure another top seat and adapt quickly.
He believes Piastri “should and will” move.
- Piastri recently signed a multi-year extension keeping him at McLaren at least until 2028, with the team expected to retain its current lineup for the next two seasons. Read Steiner's statements here.
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