Oscar Piastri had to watch as his teammate Lando Norris took over the World Championship lead in Mexico. With a dominant victory at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the Brit edged out his Australian teammate by one point. Piastri, starting from seventh place, managed to gain two positions but was far from satisfied with his own performance. With four Grands Prix remaining, he wants to drastically change his driving style.
After a poor start, Piastri fell back to ninth place in the opening round. He fought his way forward and – thanks in part to a smart pit stop – finished fifth. However, this was not enough to maintain his lead in the World Championship. Since the GP of Bahrain, he had been leading the standings, but due to Norris’s impressive victory, he had to relinquish this top position – albeit narrowly. Piastri acknowledges that, having not stood on the podium for four races, he needs to fundamentally change something about his driving style.
‘Should Have Driven Differently’
“There was a lot of contradiction, yes,” Piastri sighed, visibly upset. “It’s hard to say. I felt like I was right behind someone the entire race. This caused a lot of dirty air, making it difficult. For me, the most important thing is to learn from this. It became clear after yesterday’s session that I need to drastically change a few things about my driving style. Today was obviously about damage control, but also about learning.”
“If I’ve made some progress in that, I’m happy,” he added. He was less pleased about his fifth place. “When your teammate wins the race, a fifth place is not exactly something to write home about.” During the European season, Piastri was in top form; after the GP of Zandvoort, his lead over Norris was a whopping 34 World Championship points. How can he regain that form?
“I should have driven very differently in recent weeks,” he emphasized again. “I didn’t adapt my driving style where it was necessary. It’s a bit strange to realize, but the car and the tires were simply demanding a completely different approach in the last races. I didn’t respond well to that. That’s why I’ve tried to change a few things now. Once we’ve analyzed whether that worked, we can hopefully make progress again.”
