Vettel urges McLaren to support Piastri

17:39, 10 Nov

byDrew Murphy

Four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel has urged those around Oscar Piastri to stand by him to allow him to get back to” driving freely again”.

“What we all need in a situation like this is someone who is there for us and stands by us."

- Sebastian Vettel

A couple of months ago, when Piastri won the Dutch Grand Prix, he held a 34-point lead over teammate Lando Norris and a 104-point lead over Max Verstappen.

However, since then, Verstappen gained momentum and spectacularly closed the gap, where it now sits at a 25-point difference, and Norris has overtaken Piastri and extended his lead to 24 points.

Sebastian Vettel and Oscar Piastri at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Photo: RacePictures

As his rivals were winning races, Piastri crashed out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the opening lap and also crashed in the Austin and Brazilian Sprint events.

Vettel believes that the best thing right now for the Australian is an arm around his shoulder and support from his team.

The German told Sky Deutschland in Brazil: “First of all, he needs some peace and quiet.

“I don’t think he needs anyone to explain to him what went wrong; he knows that himself.

“What we all need in a situation like this is someone who is there for us and stands by us. He has the people in his team.

“He needs them now, so that he can move on quickly and get back to driving freely again if possible.”

Not flowing for Piastri

Piastri told the media himself that things have felt out of sorts recently.

He said after qualifying P4 in Brazil: “Just feels like things are not flowing that easily at the moment.

Oscar Piastri. Photo: Race Pictures

“I had pretty good confidence in the car yesterday [Friday]. Today felt like it was a bit trickier for everybody, and I just struggled to get the most out of the car.”

Piastri was 0.375s off Norris in qualifying, and has not qualified above his teammate since the Singapore Grand Prix.

The last time the Australian qualified on pole was at the Dutch Grand Prix in the end of August.

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