Jenson Button tells Oscar Piastri what he must not copy from his 2009 season if he wants to win the title

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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri was helpless to stop his lead in the drivers’ championship reduced yet again at the United States Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri started the United States Grand Prix weekend 22 points ahead of Lando Norris and 63 points ahead of Max Verstappen.

However, by the time the chequered flag flew on Sunday, the McLaren driver had seen Norris take eight points out of his advantage, and Verstappen maximise the entire event to move within 40 points of the Australian.

Team principal Andrea Stella addressed Piastri’s tough weekend, which started with being beaten by Norris in practice and Sprint qualifying.

Piastri was more frustrated than Norris after they collided on the opening lap of the Sprint Race, but the 24-year-old was unable to improve throughout the weekend, and only nearly caught Lewis Hamilton on the final lap due to a suspected puncture for the Ferrari driver.

Jenson Button is one of the last drivers to win a single F1 championship, when Brawn dominated the 2009 season against all odds.

He delivered a message to Piastri before the race, telling him what he shouldn’t copy from his title-winning campaign, and the importance of people like Mark Webber around him.

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Jenson Button tells Oscar Piastri to stop thinking about making mistakes in F1 title fight

Button was analysing the championship battle on Sky Sports F1 (19/10 6:56 pm), and he said: “Yeah, it’s a very tricky situation that he finds himself in. The car isn’t performing as he would have hoped, and as it was at the start of the year.

“It was so strong, they were unbeatable. Now, you’re slightly on the back foot with the car, and personally, you’re thinking about the world championship.

“So, you’re thinking about not losing points in certain races, not making mistakes, and that’s sometimes when mistakes happen.

“I will say, I’m the first person who made too many mistakes when I was fighting for my world championship in the end, and I put myself under too much pressure, and I didn’t handle that very well.

“But hopefully Oscar has learnt from other people’s failures, he’s got Mark Webber looking after him, who’s been through difficult times and keeping him positive in this scenario.”

Button was asked if he had seen a more confident side of Norris in recent races and explained: “I think so, he seems very positive in the last couple of races.

“Obviously, the incident in Singapore wasn’t good; you never want to touch your teammate in a racing scenario.

“He seems confident in himself, and from the word go, he’s had three-tenths on Oscar and it’s continued throughout the whole of the weekend.

“If he’s able to come out on top here, it’s a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season, and it’s more difficult than for Oscar as well.

“You guys go in completely different directions, so the confidence is with Lando, and the negativity is more with Oscar, which we never thought would happen with Oscar!

“But it happens, we’re all human. It’s sport, mentally, this sport is so tough.”

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Oscar Piastri denies he’s feeling the pressure of 2025 Formula 1 championship fight

Piastri was asked if he thinks the pressure of fighting for the championship is getting to him, and he said: “No, I don’t think so.

“The pressure has been there the whole year. This weekend, I didn’t really feel like I made any mistakes. It just wasn’t very fast.

“There are some weekends where it just doesn’t click for you. And this was one of those. When you feel like you’ve done a reasonable job and just the pace hasn’t been there, I don’t think that’s really what pressure looks like.

“I’ve been in fights that were as close or, at this point, even closer than what they are now. So I’ve got the evidence for myself that things can still turn out well, and I still fully believe that I can win the championship.

“There’s still a long way to go in the championship. Max has obviously chased it down pretty quick, but it’s not exactly a small gap with five rounds to go.

“Ultimately, if we can find our way again, find our pace, certainly for me, find our pace again, then I don’t have any major concerns.”

David Croft shared what Mark Webber told him privately about Piastri’s championship chances ahead of the race in Austin, and his advice is going to be pivotal going into the final five races of the year.

Piastri might not be feeling the pressure, but his results need to improve immediately or he’ll watch his first championship-challenging campaign fizzle out before the finale in Abu Dhabi.