Oscar Piastri‘s recent wobbles in his bid to become Formula 1 World Champion might be aided by what McLaren boss Andrea Stella described as the “speed of light” way he improves.
The Australian has undoubtedly struggled since his Zandvoort victory, failing to take another victory and seeing his title lead not only chipped away at by a resurgent Max Verstappen, but also by team-mate Lando Norris, who now leads by one point after his dominant victory in Mexico.
One of the recurring themes of the early part of 2025 has been Norris’ struggles with the MCL39, often struggling to gel with the car, with Piastri seemingly at one with the machine.
But Norris is now appearing far more comfortable with it, with Piastri now seemingly struggling to extract the best from it, and watching his team-mate now take the ascendancy.
Speaking during the weekend of the United States Grand Prix, Stella downplayed Piastri’s tricky run of form, believing there is no definitive reason for it.
“I think it’s two-fold. Clearly when we look at the last four races – drivers, team – there’s more that we could have done,” the Italian told media including Motorsport Week.
“There’s more that we could have extracted. And this is not only Oscar. This is Lando, this is Andrea, this is the entire team. We could have done a little bit better.
“At the same time, circuits like Austin are pretty unique circuits where you have very low grip and the tyres don’t grain, and you can wear the tyres and they still work.
“And I think this is a regime in which Oscar… he’s relatively young as a Formula 1 driver.
“And certainly, his strength is that as soon as he spots something he can do better, he improves at the speed of light.”
Piastri issues are ‘part of the development’
Stella’s words were uttered at COTA, and she believed that Piastri would be able to turn things around, but in Mexico, it was another difficult weekend, polarised further by Norris’ contrasting race.
The Briton took pole position by nearly three tenths, and six ahead of Piastri, who qualified eighth. In the race, Norris won at a canter, taking a dominant win with Piastri only finishing fifth.
But Stella’s words will undoubtedly still be relevant to him after his tricky Mexico jaunt, saying that whenever he is faced with problems, he will fix them, his hugely impressive season despite his tender age and comparative lack of experience proof of that.
“The conditions of Austin are something that he understood that he could have driven in a slightly different way,” he added. “He got it. The next time we have the same situation, he will do it.
“It’s part of the development of a driver, which is the reason why actually, despite being so young, he is leading the championship. He understands, he processes, he learns.”
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