Oscar Piastri says he has explanations for why he struggled for pace in the two races leading up to the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and is confident McLaren will not sabotage his title hopes.
Lando Norris’ victory in Mexico City allowed the British driver to take the championship lead for the first time since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April, while Piastri suffered a second difficult weekend in a row. The sudden drop in form was confusing for Piastri and led to questions from some sections of his fanbase as to whether he was being treated unfairly by McLaren, but the Australian rejected this idea.
“No, that’s not the case,” Piastri said. “I think the last few weekends have been a little bit trickier, but we’ve gotten some pretty clear answers as to why that’s the case. There’s not really a lot of mystery about what happened. I think there are questions about why differences have emerged in terms of how I should drive and things like that, but everything is explainable. So there’s absolutely none of that. [sabotaging] going on.”
- Where has Piastri’s pace gone?
Piastri says he feels much better prepared for the upcoming races having understood what needs to be adjusted in recent weeks when it comes to his driving, but in terms of the overall title picture he doesn’t believe McLaren needs to change its own approach at all.
“I think we’re always very open with each other when it comes to what we think, whether we think things have been fair, whether we think the right decisions have been made,” Piastri said. “We can stand up for ourselves and I feel very comfortable with that, and that is very encouraged by the team to make our point for ourselves individually.
“I think it’s obviously a difficult dynamic to manage when you have two cars in the same team competing for a championship that only one car can win. Obviously there will be problems with that, but I respect the team for allowing us to both try and fight for the Drivers’ Championship.
“For myself, I want to go out and try to win the championship knowing that I did it on my own strength and did the things that I could do myself. If you pick one driver, obviously you have a 50% chance that you won’t be that driver. So I don’t think anything needs to change.”
Despite losing the championship lead he held for so long, Piastri does not see this having an impact on how he or Norris will have to attack the weekend in Brazil.
“Not massively, I don’t think, especially if it’s essentially equal,” he said. “For me the mentality all year has been to try and have the best weekends I can and ultimately ride as fast as I can. At no point during the weekend did I take into account my risk appetite or anything like that more than normal, so I don’t think it changes anything for me now that the order of the championship is a little bit different.
“I’ll try to go as fast as I can and take the same risks as normal, because nine times out of 10 that’s a good balance.”
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