Damon Hill tells Mark Webber what he must start saying to Oscar Piastri to avoid F1 title heartbreak

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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has developed a reputation in the paddock for being one of the calmest characters on the grid.

Oscar Piastri currently leads the drivers’ championship, but his advantage is slowly slipping away.

Piastri has leaned into comparison with Kimi Raikkonen, who was known as The Iceman, but there have been a few moments where even he’s started to lose his temper during recent races.

He wasn’t happy with McLaren ignoring his pleas at the Singapore Grand Prix when Lando Norris hit his car after making contact with Max Verstappen.

Raikkonen was famously short with his race engineers on the radio during his career, but it helped earn him a world championship in the process.

The United States Grand Prix didn’t go to plan for the Australian, who was outscored by both Verstappen and Norris.

Jenson Button has told Piastri what he must not copy from his 2009 championship campaign if he wants to win the title.

Another former champion, Damon Hill, has also had his say, and told Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber, what he now needs to be telling him behind the scenes.

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

Damon Hill says Oscar Piastri was ‘missing in action’ at the United States Grand Prix

Hill was speaking on the Chequered Flag Podcast about Piastri’s performance at the Circuit of the Americas and said: “I said he was missing in action, literally this weekend, where was he?

“Apart from flying through the air and crashing into Lando, we hardly saw him, did we? He just wasn’t on the pace this weekend.

“There’s something that comes into play if you have not won a world championship. It’s a thought that is so distant. When you start the season, it’s a possibility.

“You’re just doing what you do. But as you get closer to the finish, it starts to come into focus. The consequences, the meaning, the significance of becoming world champion, and it’s tantalising.

“If you’re leading and you’ve got an advantage and you’re seeing that lead dwindle, then you are starting to get concerned. There will be sleepless nights. Between now and the end of the season, there is so much that can happen.

“And he knows that. Oscar knows that. Lando, I think, has smelt blood a little bit. I think he’s also got a whiff of a chance now. And I think he’ll be piling on the pressure.

“So, Oscar has got a two-pronged attack on his championship now.”

READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Damon Hill tells Mark Webber what he should ‘hopefully’ be saying to Oscar Piastri

Hill was also asked about how Piastri will be feeling privately after a difficult United States Grand Prix weekend and said: “Oscar knows what everyone else knows. He doesn’t want to talk about it. Nobody else in the team would want to directly confront him about it.

“They won’t want to say, so what are you going to do? Because it looks like you’re shaky.

“Obviously, Mark Webber is his confidant, his manager. Hopefully, he’ll be saying something along the lines of, listen, you just have to hold firm. Keep doing what you’re doing. You’ve still got an advantage. He’ll be reading all the positives to get him to reset, because there’s been a little bit of a lull.

“It was a bit of a blip, but then he’s had Baku as well, which was completely out of the blue.

“So things are happening that are new to Oscar, and he needs to reset and have confidence, refine that confidence.”

McLaren blighted by problem Ferrari are very familiar with at the United States GP

One of the knock-on effects of both McLaren drivers retiring on the opening lap of the Sprint Race at COTA was the lack of data that the team had access to.

Ted Kravitz believes McLaren ran their car too high on Sunday, an issue that has impacted Ferrari for much of the season.

McLaren didn’t want to risk both of their drivers being disqualified by risking running their cars too low, but that doesn’t explain why Piastri was so much slower than Norris.

Privately, McLaren suggested Piastri had slower race pace because he was saving his tyres, but that doesn’t explain the deficit in qualifying or why he didn’t start to catch Norris later in the race.

The Australian’s camp will hope this was just a one-off, but the momentum is very much with Norris, and more worryingly for team principal Andrea Stella, Verstappen.