Oscar Piastri explains why his poor weekend in Austin is no cause for concern—and what McLaren’s analysis says was really behind it.
McLaren’s championship leader Oscar Piastri considers his poor form in Austin to have been a “one-off” and very “Austin-specific,” he explained ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix.
Piastri said: “It was just a chaotic weekend with everything that happened. That made things a bit difficult, of course.”
Piastri is referring in particular to the crash involving his teammate in the sprint race, which took him and Lando Norris out of the race on the first lap and cost them important points. In the subsequent qualifying and Grand Prix, Piastri fell well short of expectations by his own standards.
Were Piastri’s difficulties just track-specific?
Now he says: “According to our analysis, many of the problems were specific to Austin. So I’m not too worried that these problems will continue. And of course, I hope things will go a little better this weekend.”
One thing is certain: the technical basis of his McLaren MCL39 will remain unchanged in Mexico City compared to Austin.
Piastri explains: “A few things on the car may not have been as good as they could have been. But there was nothing seriously wrong with the car either.”
Firstly, things turn out differently than you think
On the other hand, the course of the weekend contributed significantly to his performance, Piastri continues. “A few things turned out differently than we had expected from various perspectives.”
“If the car wasn’t ideal and if we could do the weekend again, we would probably do a few things a little differently, but nothing fundamental.”
Ahead of Mexico, Piastri leads the Formula 1 drivers’ standings by 14 points ahead of Norris. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen is 40 points behind.