McLaren’s Andrea Stella Says Piastri’s Form Dip Linked to Low-Grip Circuits

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes that Oscar Piastri’s recent drop in performance could be tied to a series of low-grip Formula 1 circuits, which have exposed a specific weakness in the Australian’s driving style.

After his commanding victory at the Dutch Grand Prix, Piastri led the Drivers’ Championship by 34 points over teammate Lando Norris and held a 104-point advantage over Max Verstappen. However, just six races later, the tables have turned Norris now leads the standings by a single point, with Verstappen only 35 points behind heading into the final four rounds of the season.

A Tough Run of Races

Piastri’s recent form has been turbulent. In Azerbaijan, he endured a disastrous weekend crashing in qualifying, jumping the start, and then colliding on the opening lap before retiring. His misfortunes continued in the United States Grand Prix Sprint, where he crashed out with Norris at Turn 1.

The Australian hasn’t finished ahead of Norris in a race where both cars saw the chequered flag since the Belgian Grand Prix in July, and his last podium came in Italy, marking four consecutive races off the rostrum.

Stella: “Low-Grip Circuits Have Exposed a Weakness”

Speaking after the Mexico City Grand Prix, Stella explained that McLaren’s analysis suggests Piastri’s struggles are linked to how he adapts to low-grip conditions a characteristic shared by recent venues like Austin and Mexico City.

“After qualifying in Mexico, we reviewed with Oscar extensively from data, comments, and video,” Stella said. “We extracted some important information about how the car needs to be driven in these special low-grip conditions.

“It looks like you have to drive the car in a way that adapts to the fact that it slides a lot and can still produce lap time. That’s not necessarily the way Oscar naturally feels he’s producing lap time.”

The McLaren boss added that both car setup and driving adjustments were identified to help Piastri adapt.

“We found a few things we could do with the car and a few things he could do with his driving,” Stella continued. “Oscar should be very proud of how he handled the transition from qualifying to the race. We saw that he applied what we discussed his race pace was much more competitive.”

Unfortunately, Piastri’s progress wasn’t fully reflected in the final result due to being stuck in traffic for most of the race.

“It’s a shame he couldn’t use that pace properly because he spent the entire race looking at the gearbox of the car ahead,” Stella said.

Building Experience for the Future

Despite the difficult stretch, Stella believes the experience will ultimately make Piastri a more complete driver.

“It’s important for Oscar that we go through this kind of experience, learning new tools to add to the toolbox,” he said. “That’s how you become the most complete version of a Formula 1 driver.

“It’s also important for the next four races, where we’ll face different conditions again. We need to be ready for all of them.”

With the championship fight tightening and a variety of track conditions still to come, McLaren will be hoping that Piastri’s lessons from recent races help him rediscover the form that made him a title leader earlier in the season.

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Written by

James Rees

A passionate motorsport journalist from Wales, with over 30 years of love for the sport. A dedicated father of three, working as a content manager, covering the fast-paced world of Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula E, and IndyCar.

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