Karun Chandhok says George Russell is showing the same weakness as Oscar Piastri in F1 title race

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Karun Chandhok says George Russell is suffering the same problems on low-grip tracks that plagued McLaren’s Oscar Piastri last season.

Piastri led the world championship by 34 points with 10 rounds remaining last year, but ultimately finished 13 behind his teammate Lando Norris.

Rather than suggesting that the pressure had got to him, McLaren’s Andrea Stella had a ‘technical’ explanation. He said Piastri couldn’t drive naturally at slippier circuits like Azerbaijan, Mexico and Brazil.

George Russell doesn’t like the car ‘sliding’, just like Oscar Piastri

Throughout last weekend, Russell described Miami as one of his bogey tracks. After qualifying, where he was four-tenths off polesitter Kimi Antonelli, he explained to Chandhok on Sky Sports that it felt like he was driving with ‘200-lap-old tyres’.

“I’m quite a smooth, precise driver and that’s always been my style,” he said. “On these tracks, you’ve got to be happy with the car sliding. I like the car on the edge, but this is like you’ve got a set of 200-lap-old tyres on the car, and it’s just sliding, oversteering, understeering.

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“That’s the same for everybody. It’s so hot, tyre pressures are high, the grip’s really low, so it doesn’t actually feel that pleasant, whereas you go to tracks like Saudi and the grip’s super high, it feels mega to drive and that’s where I [excel].”

Chandhok instantly made the comparison with Piastri, another driver with recent experience of an intra-team title duel.

“It sounds like Oscar and Lando,” he said. “This is what Oscar was saying, he’s super smooth and struggles at low-grip tracks. At least you know where [the weakness] is.”

Russell has valid ‘excuses’ for losing out in China and Japan, but he was beaten fair and square here, slipping 20 points behind Antonelli in the standings.

‘Massive’ gap to Lando Norris highlights Oscar Piastri problem

Speaking on the F1 Show, Chandhok elaborated on the comparison between Russell and Piastri.

“You could have copy and pasted Oscar from Austin, Mexico last year,” he said. “It was basically the same thing. I mean, what happens on these lower grip circuits is you get a lot more lateral movement.

“If you look at that sector from turn four down to turn eight, Kimi was consistently quicker than George in qualifying. That’s where he was making up chunks of time and through that whole section, especially this year, we have to remember the car’s got 30 percent less downforce.

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“They are sliding on the top surface of the tyre a bit more. And the drivers are having to manage that movement by balancing their hands and feet, the car is alive and dancing.”

Piastri had outqualified Norris at each of the first three races, but Norris outpaced him by over four-tenths on Saturday. He also got the better of the Australian throughout the Sprint portion of the weekend.

The gap between the two drivers at the chequered flag, with Norris second and Piastri third, was nearly 24 seconds.

“I think George and Oscar were perhaps less comfortable [in Miami],” said Chandhok. “If you look at the gap between Oscar and Lando throughout this weekend, it was massive.”