McLaren’s team boss Andrea Stella has been repeating a narrative to explain why his Australian driver struggled so much in Austin and Mexico City. He claims Oscar Piastri’s driving style hampers him when the track conditions are low grip.
The team had encouraged him to adapt his driving style to resolve the issue in Mexico, although Oscar was unsure of how well the experiment had gone. “It’s difficult to say ultimately, I think we certainly tried a lot of different things, but at the back with cars as well, so it was difficult to kind of get a read on whether what I was changing with my driving was working that well or not,” Piastri said in the media pen.
The problem for the McLaren driver is that Las Vegas is next on the F1 calendar where the cold desert night temperatures will again see little grip in Sin City. The team’s expectations for Brazil were much higher for their young driver as the surface in Sao Paulo is abrasive often creating high tyre degradation.
São Paulo circuit more abrasive
And this year the degradation of the rubber was expected to be even higher,. Given the thousands of grooves cut into the track surface to improve drainage after 2024’s rain soaked Grand Prix. This is why Pirelli brought tyre compounds a step harder than last year, an unusual step given they have been generally selecting compounds this season which are softer to promote more pit stops.
It all began so well for the Australian who hasn’t been on the podium since his win in Zandvoort, he was milli seconds behind his team mate in practice with Lando Norris topping the time sheets. Yet come Sprint qualifying the two tenths gap to his team mate re-appeared and it is this which has defined much of Oscar’s woes in recent race weekend.
The Sprint was a disaster for Piastri again as early in the race as he pushed harder he hit the kerb in turn two by mistake, sending his McLaren hurtling into the barrier amidst showers of carbon fibre. He could only make P4 in Grand Prix qualifying and was now almost three tenths away from Norris who claimed his sixth pole position of the season.
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Stella confirms Piastri driving deficiency
“Today, if anything, the conditions saw much less grip on track compared to yesterday,” said the McLaren team boss after Sao Paulo qualifying. “Oscar has been very competitive and very fast since the beginning of the weekend, but these conditions make things tricky.
“Some of the techniques required to drive the car fast resemble what was needed in Austin and Mexico, and Oscar is still embedding that technique. It might take a bit more time to fully exploit them, especially when you don’t know exactly how much grip you’re going to find at every corner because of the wind,” said Stella.
By way of contrast Lando Norris is at home in a low grip environment, his year’s at McLaren whilst they were in the wilderness has stood him in good stead. Piastri by way of comparison came into the team when they were on the up, but has struggled each season in certain conditions and been way of the pace of his team mate.
Norris experience counting
“For Lando, in this regime of low grip, it’s just a little more natural to do the things that produce lap time,” said Stella. “For Oscar, it’s a learning process — but he learns at the speed of light, and I expect him to have a very strong race tomorrow.”
The F1 weekend in Brazil is the third consecutive time the drivers have been forced to battle with a low grip environment something Stella believes makes the difference between success and failure increasingly marginal.
“It’s quite anomalous,” explained the McLaren boss. “You really have to get the car to slide and then manage it while it’s sliding. It’s weird conditions. But in Formula 1, even the last one percent makes the difference.” And its small differences which hugely change the outcome as Lando Norris found earlier in the year.
“If we think back to the start of the season, it took Lando time to adapt to how the car was behaving,” said Stella. “He had to understand what the front tyres were doing, where the limit was, and how to control oversteer. When he lacked that feeling, he was the one on the back foot. It’s very marginal.”
Oscar admits his mistake
Despite suffering a 43 point swing with his team mate in the past six race weekends, Oscar remains upbeat in terms of his title aspirations. “Things aren’t coming as easily as I’d like right now, but I’ve learned from Austin and Mexico. This weekend has felt much more normal, and from the first lap of practice, I felt comfortable.”
Norris extended the lead over his team mate by winning the Sprint where Piastri’s mistake now appears even a more dramatic twist in this year’s championship battle. Yet the Australian realises his error. “I used the kerb the lap before with no problem, but the track changed,” Piastri admitted. “Some guys ahead might have put more water there. I probably shouldn’t have been on the kerb anyway, but it caught me out.”
Replays show that whilst Norris used the same amount of kerb just seconds before Piastri’s calamity, he was smoother with the throttle application preventing the rear end coming around. By way of contrast there is a sharp change in the engine tone from the onboard of the Aussie’s MCL39 followed by an immediate snap at the rear, which cost him dear.
The Sao Paulo Grand Prix must be one of damage limitation for Oscar Piastri, as Norris looks set to dominate as he did last time out in Mexico. Oscar needs to complete his low grip driving style adaptation too, in anticipation for the conditions they will face along the strip in Las Vegas.
Red Bull RB21 floor switch proves disastrous for Verstappen
Hopes for Max Verstappen’s pursuit of a record fifth consecutive Formula One drivers’ championship now hang by a thread. A lack lustre weekend in Mexico saw the world champion manage just third place and lose ten points to Lando Norris has been followed by a poor weekend in Brazil.
Red Bull have continued developing their car long after others have switched their focus to the 2026 cars and for Mexico they modified the revolutionary Monza floor. For Sao Paulo they chose to stick with the car specification run two weeks earlier although Verstappen struggled on Friday in practice and came just sixth in Sprint qualifying.
An early overtake in the Sprint on Fernando Alonso followed by Piastri again crashing out of the race saw Verstappen move into fourth, but lose a further three points to his rival Norris. The performance of the RB21 in the Sprint was not terrible and in the latter part of the race Verstappen was for several laps the quickest car on track…..READ MORE
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