Anthony Davidson pinpoints exactly what Oscar Piastri has ‘lost’ during his F1 title fight slump

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Oscar Piastri has fallen behind Lando Norris by 24 points ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and Anthony Davidson has highlighted exactly what the McLaren star has lost during his slump.

After beginning the season with just two results outside of the top three, Oscar Piastri has failed to record a podium in the last six races across all formats.

The Australian held a fairly healthy 34-point lead over Lando Norris after the Dutch GP, but his recent woes have seen him slip down the order.

To put things even further into perspective, Max Verstappen was 104 points behind Piastri at the end of August.

The four-time world champion is now just 25 points behind him, and Verstappen’s title hopes remain intact.

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Anthony Davidson highlights how Oscar Piastri’s pace in qualifying has regressed since the start of the season

Former McLaren driver Gerhard Berger highlighted the mistakes that Piastri has made in recent weeks, which has proved to be a crucial factor in why he has fallen from his perch at the top of the F1 standings.

After his unfortunate DNF during the Sprint race in Brazil, Piastri held his hands up in the media pen afterwards, noting that the incident was a mistake of his own accord.

On Sky Sports F1’s coverage of FP1 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Anthony Davidson recalled Piastri’s verdict on the incident and offered a verdict on the reason behind the McLaren driver’s recent errors.

He said (21/11 12:06), “Oscar’s right, he’s made mistakes himself. More recently than before in the championship, and that hurts him now. But he’s right in saying that he’s been unlucky as well.

“He didn’t deserve the penalty, in my opinion, in turn one. It was one of those classics of three into one in that first corner; it often doesn’t work.

“We saw it in Austin, as well, and he was the one who got spun around there, and then he hit his teammate.

“It’s just chaos when you’re not qualifying right at the front, and that, for me, is exactly what he’s lost since earlier in the year.”

READ MORE: ‘Most’ of the F1 paddock disagree with Kimi Antonelli over Oscar Piastri’s Brazil penalty

Oscar Piastri’s struggles have been compounded by several uncharacteristic errors

As Davidson alluded to in his comments about Piastri’s recent slump, the Australian has shown vulnerabilities in his racecraft for what is arguably the first time in his F1 career.

The calibre of his performances in the first half of the season made it easy to forget that Piastri is only in his third season of racing in Formula 1, but the pressure of a title fight has exposed his inexperience.

Jenson Button recently noted how Piastri hasn’t dealt with the pressure as well as Norris in a U-turn on his earlier verdict that the Australian would be more capable of rising above it than his McLaren counterpart.

Damon Hill also highlighted a radio message from Piastri during the Brazil GP in which he seemed to be racing in limbo as he asked his race engineer, “What’s the plan?”

The 1996 world champion stated that it was a question that he never wants to hear from a driver in the cockpit, linking it to the recent pressure that has been on the 24-year-old’s shoulders.