Oscar Piastri has admitted his mid-season dip in form could continue at Formula 1‘s Las Vegas Grand Prix as the title fight inches towards a finale.
Having led the Drivers’ Championship since Saudi Arabia in April, Piastri relinquished his stronghold over team-mate Lando Norris in Mexico in October.
The Australian has endured a run of six winless races since his win at Zandvoort, and now sits 24 points behind Norris heading into the final triple-header.
In the build-up to the race at Interlagos two weeks ago, Piastri was quizzed about his weakness on low-grip circuits.
The 24-year-old admitted to having been lost for answers, claiming that his drop in performance has been as inexplicable on the inside, at McLaren, as it has been to the outside.
“It’s very difficult to know and I think even in the last couple of weekends there’s been some things that I didn’t expect to work that did,” he had told media including Motorsport Week.
“So I think it’s very difficult to say, but I think what I’ve focused on is just trying to make sure that however I need to drive, whatever the car needs, whatever the tyres need, that I’ve got the tools available to be able to adapt.
“I think that’s been part of the struggle the last couple of weekends is what has been working for the majority of the season wasn’t working very well.”
In fact, Piastri had predicted his inability to extract the maximum from the MCL39, as compared to Norris, would crop up again in Brazil, as it did.
“I think trying to now know what I need to do it’s just about going out and doing it,” he explained.
“Whereas I think the last couple of weekends it wasn’t always obvious what I needed to change exactly.
“So from that side of things, you know, we could have the same situation here, we could have the same in Vegas for example.
“But I feel like now I’m much better prepared for whatever kind of conditions we get.”
That said, McLaren is confident that the team can turn around its own misfortunes on the iconic Vegas strip – lending a bit of hope to Piastri’s own prospects.
Vegas has never been a happy hunting ground for McLaren. Both Piastri and Norris failed to finish in the top five during qualifying and the race last time out.
Last year, it boiled down to the fact that the MCL38 struggled massively with tyre graining – an issue that the team has seemingly mended on the MCL39 this year.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella is cautiously optimistic about the team’s chances on the street circuit, citing that it has learned from the lessons of 12 months ago.
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