Oscar Piastri’s streak of bad luck continues at the Brazilian Grand Prix: After the unfortunate accident in the sprint, the gap to his McLaren teammate Lando Norris has now grown to nine points. But the Australian is far from giving up in the World Cup fight.
“I still have the belief that I can win races and take the championship, but of course things are not as easy as I would like at the moment,” admits Piastri after the disappointing Saturday in Sao Paulo.
Nevertheless, Piastri is convinced that his driving style-related problems from Austin and Mexico have now been overcome. And although the weekend in Brazil presented him with new challenges, he still believes he can catch up and beat his teammate in the final races of the year.
Problems from Austin and Mexico have been resolved
“I think there were definitely some things to learn in Austin and Mexico and also things that I wasn’t naturally comfortable with and had to adapt to,” says Piastri, who only secured fourth place on the grid in qualifying, while Norris is once again on pole.
But: “This weekend, especially yesterday, everything felt much more normal,” says the Australian, taking stock. “I already felt comfortable in the first lap of training, the lap times came easily.” In qualifying he was still 0.375 seconds short of Norris’ best time.
“Today was a little more difficult in terms of the conditions and just getting everything out of it, but I don’t think there were the same problems this weekend.” The McLaren driver is convinced that he has put the difficulties of the last races behind him.
Sprint accident was “a bit unfortunate”
The accident during the sprint was simply unfortunate. “I have [den Kerb] “I used it a little on the previous lap and had no problems with it,” reports the 24-year-old. “Looking back, a few riders in front of me also used it and may have put a little more water on the spot where I got to.”
This also includes his teammate Lando Norris. “The track was in a different condition than the previous lap, and obviously I wasn’t the only one who got caught,” recalls Piastri that Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber) and Franco Colapinto (Alpine) also had an accident in the same place.
Nevertheless, the McLaren driver admits that he mainly has to take care of his own nose. “I probably shouldn’t have been on the scoreboard,” admits Piastri after his zero on Saturday. “But it’s a bit unfortunate that the consequences were so serious.”