‘Figure out how to close that gap’ – How can Piastri recover from ‘anonymous’ Madrid weekend?

Oscar Piastri was one of the firm favourites for the 2025 Drivers’ Championship until his season unravelled in the later rounds, and he’s not fully been able to bounce back since, having also struggled to match his team mate Lando Norris in the new generation of cars.

The Australian spent the first half of 2025 edging out his team mate for race wins and steadily built a commanding lead, but his fortunes shifted in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. A scrappy weekend saw him qualify P9, jump the lights, activate anti-stall and drop to the back of the field on the opening lap before crashing into the barriers.

From that point onwards, Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen found an advantage over Piastri and relegated him to third place in the standings. While he was afforded the chance to shake off the disappointment and prepare for the new-for-2026 regulations, any thought of another title charge was quashed by Mercedes’ early dominance.

Norris offered McLaren some hope as he made the most of their upgrades to clinch victories in Hungary and the Netherlands, and he came close again last time out in Spain, where he overshadowed Piastri’s “painful” drive to P8.

As the gulf between the team mates widens, James Hinchcliffe and Jolyon Palmer delved into Piastri’s hopes delivering a strong result in Baku – the circuit where he took his second career win in 2024 – in the latest episode of F1 Nation.

“I think the ghosts of last week are probably more in his head than the ghosts of last year, to be honest,” Hinchcliffe explained. “He had his team mate on pole – what should’ve been pole by an obscene margin had he not nearly binned it at the final corner in Qualifying.

“He was walking the race before the VSC, clearly the quickest car at the end but just couldn’t get around, and it was one of the most anonymous weekends for Oscar. He was barely mentioned. He just sort of qualified where he did, raced where he did and you didn’t really hear from him.

“I think it’s more about what happened last week, trying to figure out how to close that gap to Lando – what has he found? Where has this extra gear come from since we got to Hungary that we just haven’t seen Oscar able to match? It’s kind of been all season long.

“I thought early in the year that maybe Oscar was getting on top of the rules a little bit better, but where Lando was maybe struggling to figure certain things out, he’s continued to improve, whereas it seems like Oscar hasn’t been able to continue that trajectory as Lando’s got better. It’s going to be a tough weekend for him just because that’s the current form within that team.”

Former Renault driver Palmer went on to suggest that the lack of pressure in the championship should give Piastri the breathing space to find improvements, with McLaren sitting 197 points adrift of Mercedes.

He commented: “Oscar can be grateful that McLaren aren’t in the championship fight in a way because otherwise we’d be looking at him in exactly the same way as we’re looking at George [Russell]. He’s capitulating this season.

“Oscar had one half of a season last year where he looked like a champion and he drove like a champion. He was amazing, and bearing in mind he’s an F3 and F2 champion, it felt this time last year like the second coming of a great Aussie champion. Could he do what Mark Webber didn’t?

“It felt like it was the right thing, but when you actually look through Oscar’s career in F1 – he’s had three and a half years now – half a year was amazing. Three years were basically [spent as] second driver to Lando.”

While Palmer conceded that Piastri still has the potential to challenge at the top again, he also pointed out that the handling of this season’s car doesn’t necessarily align with the Australian’s driving preferences.

“He’s still capable now – he could turn up and win in Baku,” he added. “He’s capable of great drives, but the consistency in his comparison to Lando is not there apart from that half a year last year, which was great timing because it set him up for a title tilt. That’s my question on it – is this where Oscar is at?

“He’s not as comfortable sliding the car around as Lando. I think last year, his car suited him a little bit more until we went to these low-grip tracks and we saw his limitations more in Austin and Mexico.

“I feel like he’s just a driver who will be hoping for a run of form, but also maybe just for next winter and a bit of a reset right now. Every weekend just feels like it’s a real struggle for him.”

Piastri’s form in the McLaren intra-team battle was just one of the talking points that emerged in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix preview, which saw Palmer and Hinchcliffe join F1 Nation host Tom Clarkson.

To hear the full episode, hit go on the audio player above or click here to listen to the latest episode on your preferred podcasting platform.

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