What's gone wrong with Piastri?

Oscar Piastri has blown a 34-point lead over Lando Norris and is no longer leading the drivers' championship.

The third-year driver's immense slump has left people wondering how it's all gone so wrong so quickly. Is it the pressure of the championship, the product of a conspiracy, or something more tangible and logical? While the weight of the title fight may be a factor, the truth of the matter lies in the data.

Piastri is simply not performing - and it's not completely unexpected.

While he's only recently bottomed out, his post-summer break decline has been foreshadowed for quite a while. The Australian got off to a hot start, winning five of the first nine races with four poles. Since then, he's mustered two wins and one pole over 11 races.

In modern Formula 1, qualifying and track position is everything, and that's where Piastri's struggles originate - especially over the last handful of races.

Since narrowly beating Norris to pole in Zandvoort, Piastri has been outqualified by his teammate in four of the last five races. On average, he's also been more than two-tenths of a second slower than Norris.

Average pace difference in qualifying

Is the heat of the title fight finally melting Piastri? While the McLaren driver's crash in Baku could be considered a case of cracking under the lights, team principal Andrea Stella might have provided the actual explanation in Mexico: some of these tracks don't suit Piastri's strengths.

"I think in Austin and here, the conditions are such that the car slides a lot," Stella said, according to Keith Collantine of RaceFans. "And I think this requires a particular familiarity with the car, with how you exploit the car, which possibly is something on which Oscar needs to still work a little bit."

Tracks such as Mexico and Austin, where there's less grip and it's a challenge to extract the maximum out of the tires, seem to be where Norris holds the biggest advantage over Piastri.

That was true in 2025 and has also been true in the past.

* Q1 times used as Piastri was eliminated in Q1
** Norris did not set a representative lap for comparison in 2023

Sadly for Piastri, it might be a few more races before the calendar swings back in his favor. While Brazil will be a coin flip, it's historically been a good track for Norris, who took pole last season in the rain and got a podium in 2023. Las Vegas might not be tailor-made for the McLaren car, but after that comes Qatar, where Piastri has strung together back-to-back podiums.

The toughest part of Piastri's defense was always going to be the latter stages of the season - not only because of the mounting pressure of a championship, but also due to a gauntlet of tracks where he's struggled in the past.