After yesterday’s qualifying session, it was already likely that Piastri would leave Hermanos Rodriguez without the championship lead, and today confirmed that outcome. Lando Norris’ victory, combined with Piastri’s fifth place, allowed the British driver to surpass his teammate and take the lead in the championship with only four rounds left in the season.
Piastri had already shown signs of struggle in the previous race, which were repeated during qualifying yesterday. During today’s race, the 24-year-old tried to fight back but ran into a formidable Haas, driven by a remarkable Oliver Bearman, and faced a Virtual Safety Car at the worst possible moment, just two laps from the finish.
“It was a lot of battling on track today. I spent the whole race behind someone in dirty air, which made it really difficult,” Oscar Piastri admitted after the race. “The most important thing today is what I learned. After yesterday’s qualifying, it was clear there was something in my driving I needed to change—something significant. Today I tried to limit the damage and learn something. If I made progress in that sense, I’ll be happy. But when your teammate wins and you finish fifth, it’s not exactly extraordinary.”
It was easy to assume that Oscar Piastri had faced something that undermined his confidence in his driving, which had been almost flawless up to Zandvoort.
“I haven’t lost confidence in my driving abilities. I’ve just had to drive very differently over the last two races. Or maybe I didn’t drive differently when I should have. It’s been hard to understand, you know, because I drove the same way I have all year. It’s just that in the last two race weekends, the car, the tires, or something else required a noticeably different driving style, and I just couldn’t manage it. So today I tried some things to change that. Once I analyze what worked or not, I hope it helps us see some progress.”
If Oscar Piastri’s driving has remained the same, and the MCL39 has not received updates for several weeks, what exactly caused his struggles? The Australian does not mince words, implying that the problem lies with himself rather than the car.
“Obviously the car hasn’t changed in a while. So I don’t think the issue is the vehicle. Potentially—or at least I think so—given the pace over the last two races, it’s clear that Lando found it easier to adapt, whereas I didn’t. So yes, there’s a lot of analysis to do to better understand the situation. But, you know, I think it’s important to remember that in the other 19 races, my driving worked pretty well. So it’s more about adding some tools to my toolkit rather than reinventing myself.”
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