The 2025 Formula 1 World Championship approaches its dramatic conclusion with just four rounds remaining, and McLaren driver Oscar Piastri faces a pivotal weekend at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The young Australian needs to urgently arrest a late-season decline that has seen his once-commanding points lead evaporate in a high-stakes internal battle against teammate Lando Norris for the drivers’ crown. This intense McLaren rivalry, coupled with a resurgent Max Verstappen and Red Bull now firmly in the championship mix, sets the stage for an electrifying and unpredictable finale.

Piastri had initially established a robust position in the championship standings. Following Lando Norris’s calamitous retirement at the Zandvoort Grand Prix, Piastri’s lead had swelled to a significant 34 points. At that juncture, the narrative pointed towards a relatively drama-free path for Piastri, whose consistent performances and remarkable composure had been a hallmark of his season. His ability to extract maximum performance from the MCL39 with minimal incidents had made a comeback from his teammate appear a highly improbable, "left-field" scenario.

However, the championship’s momentum has shifted dramatically in recent races. This coincided with Max Verstappen, driving for Red Bull, re-entering the title debate following a strong resurgence in form from both driver and team. Verstappen’s renewed challenge added another layer of complexity to McLaren’s championship aspirations, forcing them to contend with an external threat alongside their internal battle. Crucially, Lando Norris has hit a purple patch, consistently showcasing exceptional speed and race craft, solidifying his position as McLaren’s in-form driver.

While a renewed challenge from Norris might have been anticipated, the severity of Piastri’s recent downturn has been unexpected. The Australian’s struggles began with a costly retirement in Baku, capping a weekend marred by multiple incidents and a clear lack of rhythm. This challenging event was followed by two consecutive "off-kilter" weekends in Austin and Mexico. Across both North American rounds, Piastri appeared genuinely off the pace, struggling to find the optimal operating window for his car and trailing his teammate significantly throughout practice, qualifying, and the races themselves.

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In stark contrast, Lando Norris delivered an exemplary performance during this period. In Mexico, he produced what many considered his finest qualifying lap of the season, a masterclass of precision and aggression. He then translated this pace into a dominant race victory, crossing the finish line a substantial 30 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. This emphatic win not only underscored Norris’s resurgent form but also saw him snatch the championship lead from Piastri, albeit by a slender single point, intensifying the intra-team rivalry to a fever pitch.

The sudden reversal of fortunes for Piastri ignited a flurry of speculation among fans and pundits alike. Theories ranged widely, from suggestions that the otherwise unflappable Australian was "cracking under pressure" in the heat of a championship fight, to claims of a fundamental issue with his chassis. More outlandish theories even hinted at the possibility of McLaren somehow disadvantaging one of their drivers, a notion vehemently rejected by the team, especially given their public commitment to treating both Norris and Piastri as equal number ones in their pursuit of a first double world championship since 1998.

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella, however, offered a more technical and pragmatic explanation for Piastri’s recent difficulties. Stella attributed the issues primarily to the specific characteristics of the low-grip circuits encountered in Austin and Mexico, combined with the nuanced demands of driving the MCL39 in such challenging conditions. He explained that while the car was undeniably fast, it required a particular, aggressive driving style to extract its maximum performance, especially when contending with hot tarmac and the propensity for tyre sliding.

"It was good to prove that it was the fastest car," Stella stated candidly after the Mexico Grand Prix, referencing Norris’s dominant win. "But the fastest car is also a car that needs to be driven in a certain way, especially when you have conditions like here and to some extent in Austin, with hot tarmac, sliding tyres, and the way in which you generate lap time is a way that comes relatively naturally for Lando and less naturally for Oscar." Stella also emphasized Piastri’s ongoing development, reminding observers of his limited experience: "At the same time, we don’t have to forget that while we talk about the leader in the drivers’ championship, he’s not even finished the third season in Formula 1. So, experiencing situations like we have [in Mexico] and Austin is how you actually calibrate yourself as a driver. Every session, Oscar is learning a little bit as to what you need to do." He concluded by commending Piastri’s mental fortitude: "Oscar should be very proud of himself of how he has handled it. We could see in the race that he was applying this."

Piastri himself acknowledged the significant challenge of adapting his driving style, describing it as counter-intuitive to his natural approach. The core insight from McLaren’s analysis was that Piastri needed to embrace a degree of car sliding as a necessary technique to unlock the final tenths of performance from the MCL39, rather than viewing it as an indication of error. This "tidier, on-rails" driving style, which had served him so well in the earlier part of the season, was suddenly proving less effective. "For some reason, the last couple of weekends has required a very different way of driving, and what’s worked well for me in the last 19 races has needed something very different the last couple of weekends," Piastri debriefed after the North American double-header. "Trying to wrap my head around why has been a bit of a struggle, but ultimately [the race] was about trying to experiment with some of those things. Driving the way I’ve had to drive these last couple of weekends is not particularly natural for me, so it’s been about trying to exploit it as much as I can."

Addressing persistent concerns regarding his car’s integrity, particularly after a forced chassis change following the Baku incident, Stella categorically dismissed any suggestions of a performance deficit. "Every evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measurement of information we have tells us that there is no problem with the car, and we have no reason to suspect that that’s the case," the Italian team principal asserted. He further clarified the team’s standard operating procedures: "I know that in the history of F1 there is this topic of changing the chassis. I would change other components than the chassis, like the floor, the front wing, but in reality there is a rotation of parts, so it’s not like there is always the same parts on the car. So we have reasons to be reassured that there is no problem with the car."

Despite the challenging internal dynamics, McLaren’s dominant performance in Mexico served as a significant morale booster. The team reaffirmed its belief in the MCL39’s race-winning and even dominant capabilities. While previous races, including being unexpectedly beaten by Verstappen at circuits where they had performed strongly in 2024, had momentarily tested this confidence, Norris’s commanding victory in Mexico provided critical validation. This performance, according to Stella, instilled "more confidence" in McLaren’s ability to challenge Max Verstappen’s pursuit of a potential fifth consecutive title in the remaining rounds, even though the Dutchman’s deficit to the championship leader had narrowed from 40 points before the weekend to 36 points after Mexico.

The upcoming Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, featuring a sprint race format, represents a crucial and immediate opportunity for Piastri to implement the lessons learned and demonstrate a decisive turnaround in form. McLaren’s technical analysis suggests that Piastri’s slump was predominantly track-dependent, implying that the characteristics of the remaining circuits should not inherently favour one driver over the other. "In the final four races, there’s no reason to think that one may favour one driver or the other," Stella insisted. "For Lando and Oscar, there’s no problem in terms of track layout coming in the next four races. If anything, we need to make sure that we are in condition to extract the full performance that is available in the car, like we have been able to do in Mexico [unlike previous races]."

Stella conveyed an overarching sense of optimism regarding Piastri’s development trajectory. "Even if he lost some points to Verstappen, I think Oscar has got a lot of learning from this weekend. And that’s an investment that you make to make sure that you are competitive in every condition in the final part of the season. So overall, we come out of this weekend encouraged and optimistic." For Oscar Piastri, the imperative at Interlagos is clear: to halt the recent decline, regain his competitive edge, and close the performance gap to his teammate. This is a critical step both for his personal confidence in the McLaren machinery and, more broadly, for keeping his championship aspirations firmly on track as the 2025 Formula 1 title fight enters its penultimate and most decisive phase.

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Jonas Leo

Jonas Leo is a passionate motorsport journalist and lifelong Formula 1 enthusiast. With a sharp eye for race strategy and driver performance, he brings readers closer to the world of Grand Prix racing through in-depth analysis, breaking news, and exclusive paddock insights. Jonas has covered everything from preseason testing to dramatic title deciders, capturing the emotion and precision that define modern F1. When he’s not tracking lap times or pit stop tactics, he enjoys exploring classic racing archives and writing about the evolution of F1 technology.

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