Oscar Piastri has repudiated the theories that his slump over recent rounds has been due to McLaren favouring team-mate Lando Norris in their Formula 1 title battle.
Piastri goes into the upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix without the championship lead, a position he’s not been in since the Bahrain Grand Prix almost seven months ago.
The Australian’s results have declined since he won at Zandvoort, with a four-race streak without a podium witnessing a 34-point advantage turn into a one-point gap.
Piastri’s torrid run reached a nadir at the last event in Mexico, when he was at a loss to explain the massive sixth-tenth margin separating him and Norris in qualifying.
That has triggered accusations that McLaren is hampering Piastri, with erstwhile F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone proposing that he’s been “slowed down” to aid Norris.
But when asked whether there was substance to such accusations, Piastri asserted that a delve into the data has since made it clear where his momentum has gone.
“No, it’s not the case,” Piastri told media including Motorsport Week in Brazil.
“You know, I think the last couple of weekends have been a little bit more tricky, but we’ve got pretty clear answers on why that’s the case.
“There’s not really too many mysteries on what’s kind of happened.
“I think there’s some questions of kind of why some differences have cropped up in terms of how I need to drive and stuff like that, but there’s, yeah, everything is explainable.
“So there’s definitely none of that going on.”
Piastri responds to Jos Verstappen advice
Alongside Ecclestone, Jos Verstappen, whose son Max is also in title contention, 36 points behind Norris, commented that Piastri’s sudden plight was “quite strange”.
When told the Dutchman has advised him not to become a pushover, Piastri highlighted that McLaren encourages both him and Norris to be open with their thoughts.
“I think for me we’re always very open with each other in terms of what we think, whether we think things have been fair, whether we think the right decisions have been made, and from that side of things we can stand up for ourselves, and I feel very comfortable doing that and that’s very much encouraged by the team to kind of make our point for ourselves individually,” Piastri responded.
“But I think it’s obviously a difficult dynamic to manage when you’ve got the two cars in the same team fighting for a championship that only one car can win, there’s obviously naturally going to be difficulties with that. But I respect the team allowing us to both try and fight for the Drivers’ Championship.
“I think for myself, I want to go out there and try and win the championship knowing that I did it on my own merit and doing the things that I could do in my control. Obviously if you pick one driver you’ve got a 50 per cent chance that you’re not going to be that driver.
“So I think for me we’re very much encouraged and welcomed to stand up for ourselves already, so I don’t think anything needs to change.”
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