An “extremely deflated” Oscar Piastri said it was “difficult to get into a rhythm” after what he described as a “let-down” weekend in Austin, capped off with a fifth-place finish in Monday’s race.
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Piastri had been lacking confidence all weekend and that continued into the race, with the Australian finishing behind title rivals Max Verstappen and teammate Lando Norris for a fourth consecutive grand prix.
It was just the latest disappointment for Piastri in a weekend that left the championship leader with more questions than answers, with Mercedes driver George Russell even telling his team over the radio during Monday’s race that the Australian looked “slow”.
It comes after Piastri crashed out of the sprint race, while he was also consistently slower than teammate Lando Norris across the whole weekend – 0.279s slower in FP1, 0.309s slower in sprint qualifying and then 0.283s in grand prix qualifying.
Speaking on team radio after the race, Piastri admitted it was a “tricky afternoon”.
“Just struggled a lot with the balance. That wasn’t the easiest weekend but plenty more to go so let’s keep pushing,” he added.
Sky Sports F1 host Simon Lazenby said Piastri looked like he was “extremely deflated” after another underwhelming weekend, with his lead over teammate Norris reduced to just 14 points while Verstappen continues to gain ground.
Piastri told Sky Sports after the race that the biggest focus for him moving forward would be trying to work out why he wasn’t gelling with the car this weekend.
“It was just difficult to get into a rhythm at all and that’s been the big difference compared to other circuits we’ve been to, even more recently,” the Australian said.
Max closes in on Oscar after another win | 02:32
As for whether he believes at some point McLaren will need to make a call on whether to prioritise one driver or another in the title race, Piastri was diplomatic as always.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” he said.
“We’re still so incredibly tight and we’ve both said we wanted an opportunity to try and fight for the championship because we deserve it so I think it’s far too close to start picking one over the other.”
Piastri is right, with Norris still having five races to cut down the 14-point deficit.
It means that the pressure is only building on the Australian, especially given the strong position he found himself in earlier in the year before his recent struggles.
But speaking on Sky Sports, former F1 world champion Jenson Button backed the “intelligent” Australian to find the answers.
“The car is obviously not working for him either,” Button said.
“He hasn’t forgotten how to drive but he’ll be driving around going, ‘Why can’t I drive my car like my teammate can and like I could before’.
“Pressure builds when things start going wrong and then you might go in the slightly wrong direction on set-up. It’s difficult to find your way out of it, and it’s having the right people around you in that scenario.
“He’s got his head screwed on. He’s very intelligent. But it’s so much pressure. This is pressure that no other racer ever feels until you fight for a world championship.”
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