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Oscar Piastri needs a lot to go his way if he’s to win the Formula 1 world title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Piastri enters the weekend in third, 16 points behind McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
That means that, even if Piastri wins – and for all his speed in Qatar, he’s still without a Grand Prix victory since Zandvoort – Norris will only need to be in the top five to defeat him.
In the words of Martin Brundle, Piastri looked ‘broken’ after the Qatar GP, when McLaren’s strategic error denied him a critical win. He may arrive at Yas Marina feeling more optimistic, but still aware of the reality of his situation.
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Speaking on Sky Sports’ F1 Show, however, David Croft suggested that Piastri may be able to make his own luck this weekend.
David Croft says Oscar Piastri could back Lando Norris into the pack
McLaren aren’t planning to impose team orders this weekend because both of their drivers can still mathematically win the title. This stance could change in race if Piastri’s hopes disappear entirely.
One pundit has suggested that Piastri will try to ‘trip up’ Norris to show his ‘dissatisfaction’ with the McLaren management. But Croft has no doubt that he will ‘play the team game’ based on a conversation earlier in the season.
However, he does think that, if Piastri gets into the lead and Norris is second, the Australian might start lowering his pace, which would push his teammate into the clutches of the cars behind.
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He said: “Oscar mentioned this when I was chatting to him earlier in the season – ‘I’ll play the team game because I’m going to need the team in the future, and it is all about the team, this is a team sport’.
“So he’s not going to go against it. I don’t think Lando would go against it either, especially if it allows Max in. You’ve got to look people in the eye a day after the race.
“I can see Oscar winning the race, I can see a Lewis Hamilton/Nico Rosberg 2016 scenario, where Oscar doesn’t go quite as fast and might back his teammate up into the pack.
“That is absolutely acceptable, and I would expect nothing less. But I think Lando will emerge as champion with Oscar winning the race.”
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Croft references the 2016 title decider between Hamilton and Rosberg. The former was 12 points behind at the start of the race, but the problem was that Mercedes were even more dominant than McLaren have been this year.
Had Hamilton driven a standard race, it’s likely that Rosberg could have cruised to second. Instead, the British driver backed Rosberg into the cars behind.
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Mercedes ordered Hamilton to speed up but he refused to do so, reminding them to speed up. This damaged the relationship between driver and team and necessitated crisis talks with Toto Wolff over the winter, even after Rosberg retired.
The ‘dirty tricks’, to quote Sebastian Vettel, failed, and Rosberg held onto P2 to win the title by five points.
Reflecting on the race earlier this year, Rosberg called Hamilton an ‘assassin’ but says it was ‘understandable’ that he tried to ‘maximise the grey areas’.
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