Andrea Stella admitted something about Oscar Piastri ‘for the first time’ at the Mexican Grand Prix

Follow us on Google Discover

McLaren star Oscar Piastri has led the F1 drivers’ championship since round five of the 2025 season, yet Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are now eating into his advantage.

Piastri took first place in the F1 drivers’ standings away from his McLaren teammate, Norris, back in April when he won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old even led Norris by 34 points and Verstappen by 104 points after he won August’s Dutch Grand Prix in round 15.

Yet Piastri now leads Norris by 14 points and Red Bull rival Verstappen by 40 points ahead of this Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix in round 20 of 24. The Australian has not outscored his two title rivals in either of the past four rounds, as he bids to hold on and win his debut title.

Verstappen also took full advantage of Piastri crashing in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in round 17, as the four-time reigning champion won in Baku. He also gained 23 points at the United States Grand Prix in round 19, helped by Piastri crashing into Norris in the F1 Sprint at COTA.

Andrea Stella admits Oscar Piastri ‘misused the car’ in the 2025 United States Grand Prix

Piastri has not even finished on a podium since he took P3 in the Italian Grand Prix, after an order by McLaren to let Norris back through for P2, at the start of his disappointing run. Yet team principal Andrea Stella refuses to accept that Piastri is now having a difficult moment.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Ronald Verding, a reporter for the Dutch edition of Motorsport.com, notes that Stella would not admit ahead of the Mexico City GP that Piastri is struggling. But the Italian admitted “for the first time” that Piastri may have hurt his race at the United States GP by misusing his car.

Vording said: “It fits the pattern of the past few weeks that Oscar has often proven to be the slower [driver] in that internal McLaren duel.

“I asked Stella about that, and then he acknowledged for the first time that, ‘Well, if we go back to Austin, Oscar might have misused the car. A slightly wrong set-up for that specific Austin circuit’. He immediately added, ‘Oscar learns from that’.

“He indicated that Oscar Piastri is learning faster than the speed of light this year. So, according to [Stella], Oscar can put those learned lessons into practice quite quickly.

“He didn’t want to accept that Oscar is having a very, very difficult and less successful period in general.”

Oscar Piastri is already playing catch-up to Lando Norris and Max Verstappen at the Mexico City Grand Prix

McLaren boss Stella’s admission comes after Piastri only secured P5 in the United States GP, after he also only qualified P6 at COTA last weekend. Norris qualified and finished in second, as Verstappen won the United States GP from pole for his third win in the past four rounds.

READ MORE: Everything to know about the Mexico City Grand Prix, including past winners

Piastri is already playing catch-up to Norris and Verstappen at the Mexico City GP, as he bids to thwart their attacks in the drivers’ standings after successive disappointing rounds in Italy, Azerbaijan, Singapore and the USA. He will not want to drop points for a fifth straight round.

While Piastri was fourth-fastest in FP1 this Friday, he was the only title contender taking part in the session. Pato O’Ward replaced Norris at McLaren, while Red Bull put Arvid Lindblad in Verstappen’s car in FP1. McLaren and Red Bull were fulfilling part of their rookie FP1 quotas.

Despite having less track time, Verstappen set the pace in FP2 for the Mexico City GP with a 1:17.392. Norris also set the fourth-best time with a 0.251-second deficit to Verstappen, yet Piastri only ranked 12th with a 0.840s deficit. Norris also seemed to have the best race pace.

Practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez followed the trend that Jacques Villeneuve has noticed that Norris is now the “stronger” McLaren driver over Piastri, having beaten his teammate in each of the last four Grands Prix to reduce his championship lead to 14 points.