McLaren’s Oscar Piastri admits to adapting his driving style: “It was a learning experience”. Oscar Piastri finished fifth in Mexico but lost the championship lead to Lando Norris.

Change of leadership

After his fifth consecutive race without a podium, Oscar Piastri lost the championship lead. Starting from seventh, the Australian still managed to limit the damage, finishing fifth and narrowly missing fourth place behind Ollie Bearman—a position that might have been his if not for the controversial Virtual Safety Car in the last two laps. Oscar Piastri is now just one point behind teammate Lando Norris, although the trend clearly favors the Brit.

Reflecting on a challenging weekend

Speaking to journalists in Mexico after the race, Oscar Piastri reflected on the weekend and the recent period that saw him squander the 34-point advantage he held over his McLaren teammate Lando Norris after the Zandvoort round. “It was certainly a formative experience, that’s for sure,” admitted Oscar Piastri when discussing his recent difficulties.

The need to adapt

“For some reason,” explained the McLaren driver, “over the last two weekends, it was necessary to adopt a very different driving style. What worked well for me in the first 18 races required something very different in the last two weekends. Trying to understand why this was happening was a bit difficult. I definitely tried many different approaches,” he added, referring to the driving style he used in the Mexico GP. “But I felt like I was always stuck behind a lot of cars, so it was hard to tell if the changes I was making were effective or not.”

“We will need to analyze the data and see if it’s positive in terms of numbers and performance metrics,” he concluded, “because from a feeling perspective, when you are behind so many cars, it’s very hard to tell. Driving the way I had to over the last two weekends isn’t particularly natural for me, so it was about trying to get the most out of it.”