Speaking after fighting his way back to fifth, Oscar Piastri admitted that he doesn't understand what's behind his ongoing lack of form.

Indeed, the Australian posed more questions than answers, for although the Woking team hasn't made any changes to the car, he insists that it is different from before.

"It's certainly been a learning experience for sure, I think," he told reporters, having lost the championship lead to his teammate for the first time since Saudi Arabia.

"For some reason, the last couple of weekends has required a very different way of driving, " he continued, "and what's worked well for me in the last 19 races has needed something very different the last couple of weekends, and trying to wrap my head around why has been a bit of a struggle.

"Ultimately today was about trying to experiment with some of those things," he admitted, "because I would agree, I think 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.

"I think I understood the car a little bit better, but it wasn't so much the pace of the car, because clearly the car was pretty quick this weekend," he added, a clear reference to his teammate's convincing victory.

"It was more just trying to unlock it, and I felt like I potentially made some steps in doing that today, but ultimately when you're behind so many cars and trying to fight for so long, it's difficult to measure that a little bit, so hopefully we'll get a bit more indication from some of the data."

Asked what he needs to do in order to regain the lead in the title fight, he said: "Find some more pace and win some more races."

Speaking on his bold move on George Russell, he said: "I had to go for it in the end. I tried a couple of times to kind of bide my time through the first sequence of corners and try and get him into Turn 4, but it was like every time you tried that they put quicksand down, because you just had no grip, so very difficult to do that, and I just had to go for it, and in the end it wasn't too difficult."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 29/10/2025 11:31

"Celtic Tiger...You may well be right and it would be very interesting to see what happened if they simply swapped cars for two practice sessions...will it happen? No way. Another point that seems to have been missed is that McLaren changed the front suspension a while back. Oscar tried it an decided to stick with the old and Norris went with the new which obviously worked for him. That fact says quite lot really insofar as if that situation remains true ATM then the cars are not identical. Others closer to home may know what the latest is....
"

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2. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 29/10/2025 10:03

"Since that bang up in the Texas sprint, where the a*se of his car was lifted and slammed to the ground, the pace in his car has suffered greatly. It's evident in the feature race in COTA where he was looking mighty punchy in the sprint to having no pace at all in the feature race. That shocking lack of pace comparatively to his teammate carried on into both the qualifying and the race in Mexico. I don't know what's going on but its suspicious.
It's possible that the chassis is buggered and the data sensors aren't picking it up. After all, F1 is a sport in which just sitting a few millimeters higher in the car eats into thousands of a second per lap. I doubt that it's just a case of driving style or track suitability because if we compare Oscar's results from last year then comparatively he's pretty much smashed it since Monza. So, that said, Stella should stop being stubborn and just give Piastri a new chassis. Then we'll see how he gets on."

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3. Posted by kenji, 28/10/2025 12:33

"@Hobgoblin...hahaha A Thank you? I am eternally grateful so think nothing of it. That I could have provided you with a modicum of levity in such depressing world is music to my ears. Have a very nice day."

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4. Posted by Hobgoblin, 28/10/2025 12:25

"@kenji - " like out of control rabid national pride " - from you, that's the funniest thing I have read in a long time. Thankyou!"

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5. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 28/10/2025 12:07

"@kenji - more interesting hypotheticals, but still zero evidence. Post-race debriefs about car feel are standard practice, are they not? Every driver tells their engineers what they want from the car. If that counted as ‘tampering’, every team in F1 would be guilty of sabotage. The telemetry data shows nothing unusual. We know this because, if it did, it would already be public knowledge and we’d be reading about it on this site. "

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6. Posted by kenji, 28/10/2025 10:43

"@Spindoctor......As you are well aware there are many theories floating around and fans/followers appear convinced that there is a strong foundation upon which to postulate intervention by the team to influence certain outcomes. Yesterday I read on a site that appears to be genuinely non partisan that Norris claimed to have had a post Singapore debrief with 'his' team where he reputedly told them that the car was 'everything he didn't want'. He proceeded to tell them what he wanted and according to him they have delivered. There is obviously no mention of any specifics but it begs the question... were these 'changes' material and were they also offered to Piastri, were they simply set up tweaks that were specifically tailored to Norris driving style? Were they disclosed to the other side of the garage in a frank and open manner after all McLaren/Stella and Brown all bang on about equality between sides. Oscar certainly seems perplexed. Have Stella and Co convinced him that it's all his driving fault and nothing to do with the car? Interesting question eh?

I mention this simply to highlight the issues circulating the medium that ad fuel to the conspiracy fires plus I never underestimate the lengths some people will go to in order to seek an advantage."

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7. Posted by Spindoctor, 28/10/2025 9:02

"As per my previous I don't subscribe to any conspiracy, but find it hard to correlate the evidence of a car which was visibly slow in a straight line, even with DRS with the notion that there's nothing wrong with the car\PU. I can't get hold of actual speeds down the main straight so this is a subjective comment.

As to the 'Driving style' etc. That's valid but would also merge into setup. I presume that until Piastri's sudden loss of form\ Norris' improvement, their cars were set up to mitigate individual problems & emphasise strengths.

The great delight of Sport is it's unpredictability, so we'll see what happens on tracks that have mainly medium or high grip and are supposedly more suited to Piatstri's 'style'. In reality I'm expecting that Team Versatppen will already have the Champers on ice...."

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8. Posted by kenji, 28/10/2025 1:58

"@Brighton Corgi....love your enthusiasm and i really hope that Piastri can get back on track and take the win....however I do believe that it is highly unlikely. Recent events would indicate that the 'push' will ensure a victory on their side of the garage. I bet that the T Shirts have already been printed...."

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9. Posted by BrightonCorgi, 27/10/2025 18:41

"The show ain't over and Oscar can still prevail. Brazil is going to be one heck of a race."

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10. Posted by Chester, 27/10/2025 17:40

"Who here doubts that Zak Brown and the McLaren marketing department, and very likely Liberty, would prefer Lando Norris win the WDC?

This year I have been to both Montreal and Austin in person- and I can say without a doubt that the Lando jerseys outnumber Piastri jerseys, possibly by a 3 to 1 ratio.

And the type of fan wearing those Lando jerseys? Younger females 13-35 in age. Hmm... a key Liberty conquest demographic.

Let's all get real here about motivations."

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11. Posted by Superbird70, 27/10/2025 13:49

"As disappointed as I am with Piastri's result I don't believe anything sinister is taking place. It can be that his mojo has taken a hit and he needs to find his mental sweet spot again.

It is also possible that an unconscious bias has crept into McLaren where by they unknowingly favour Norris. But like the 'different' car pretty hard to track down.

This just leaves the door open for Verstappen and an exciting end of season."

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12. Posted by Burton, 27/10/2025 13:02

"Mclaren have been pretty upfront that the front of the car is more numb than last year's. And so, without changing the actual suspension geometry and stuff like that, they made miniscule changes to the steering arms so that the car produces more force feedback through the driver's hands I suppose. Norris drives that, Piastri chose not to. In fact, throughout the season Lando has been very candid that the car suits Piastri's natural style more, and Piastri has indeed performed better more often. But, here we are at tracks with low grip, and Piastri is struggling slightly more. Maybe it's just a combination of things, like that choice of not running that more forceful suspension, not being as experienced and naturally less in-tune with low grip conditions. They've been so evenly matched all season, Lando has had a slump, now it's Oscar...it's completely normal."

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13. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 27/10/2025 12:58

"@kenji – You’re slightly misquoting both Piastri and the editor there. The article actually says: ‘for although the Woking team hasn’t made any changes to the car, he insists that it is different from before.’

That line makes it clear McLaren hasn’t altered anything physically. The ‘difference’ Piastri refers to is how the car feels to drive, from his perspective, not that the team has done something to it.

The editor’s own earlier comments also confirmed he wasn’t suggesting any tampering, just that sometimes “words are enough”.

You avoided directly answering the original question. If McLaren’s engineers have supposedly made changes to Piastri’s car, how exactly are they hiding that from both the FIA’s telemetry oversight and Mercedes as the power-unit supplier?

You mention ‘rabid national pride’ – but McLaren is owned by the Bahraini royal fund, run by an American CEO and an Italian team principal, with engineers from dozens of countries. So who’s this conspiracy supposed to serve?

If your claim is that hundreds of McLaren & Merc HPP staff and FIA technicians are falsifying/ignoring data in unison, that’s an extraordinary allegation. Shouldn’t there be at least one shred of technical evidence before we start assuming something so implausible?"

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14. Posted by kenji, 27/10/2025 12:24

"@Ricardo-sanchez....Second para, this very thread produced by our Ed, quoting Oscar Piastri. ' He insists that it is [the car ] different'. What part of that don't you understand? To clarify, I'm just an old bloke who has followed F1 and the forerunner all my life, living out my days on the Gold Coast. I read what you do and I observe every race in 4K colour splendour on an 74inch screen and I have an opinion, like most others, but obviously it doesn't push any of your buttons. My best polite suggestion is that you address your questions to Oscar Piastri direct. Finally F1, as you know, employs vast legions of engineers , touted as leading world class across a wide spectrum of positions that specialise in all the engineering arts.It is my contention that if there was a big enough incentive [ like out of control rabid national pride ] that these self same specialists could most likely come up with a scheme to outfox the wiliest of inquisitors. Then again I may be totally wrong and I am grossly wide of the mark......"

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15. Posted by mallat, 27/10/2025 12:04

"Lando had the same slump before, but then nobody batted an eye. He uses these exact same words, like not understanding the car, the unexplainable sudden change, the struggle to adapt his driving style...
Some of you people are ridiculously biased, blabbing conspiracies, you're supposed to be grown-ups, not children."

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Piastri remains mystified by "different" car

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