McLaren’s Oscar Piastri dismisses F1 divebomb theory

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri thinks there wasn’t an increase in Formula 1 drivers braking late to get to the apex first at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris battled hard in Austin which sparked a furious debate over the last couple of weekends.

This boiled over into the Mexico City GP and was further intensified by Verstappen running Norris wide at Turns 4 and 8 in a single lap.

Elsewhere, Liam Lawson and Sergio Perez battled hard into Turns 4 through 5 as the Red Bull driver’s car suffered sidepod damage after contact with the RB.

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Ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, there were questions about whether the Austin incident encouraged drivers to divebomb the apex more often in Mexico.

In response, at Thursday’s press conference, Piastri said: “Not massively, I don’t think, I mean, personally, I didn’t think it was that much different.

“It depends on, I guess, sometimes the people involved and not everyone races in exactly the same way.

“But I didn’t really notice a change, personally.

“There was obviously the contact with Liam and Checo, which was very, very hard but I don’t think it really changes [anything].”

Piastri: Racing etiquette more than just ‘what’s written on a piece of paper’

The McLaren driver avoided any drama coming through the field in the Mexico City GP after starting from 17th place to finish in eighth at the chequered flag.

Despite the incidents that occurred elsewhere in the race, Piastri insisted that the Stewards’ decisions and rules do not impact the drivers as much as people think, instead, he believed it was more about F1 drivers’ racing principles.

“You know, there are these guidelines out there, but I think, you know, there’s a few kind of principles, I guess, we have as drivers, which is one, you don’t really want to crash the car because it hurts and it costs money.

“And also, you don’t want anyone to overtake you.

“So to then think in the moment that, ‘I’m just going to release the brakes to get ahead at the apex and not worry about the consequences’ or whatever, like, it goes a bit further than just what’s written on a piece of paper, I think.

“Maybe some people will race a bit differently with some of the Stewards’ decisions, but that happens with every incident.

“It kind of sets a precedent no matter what it is, so I don’t think it will change that much, but we’ll see.”

READ MORE: FIA steward expects more questionable tactics from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen