Max Verstappen tells Oscar Piastri he would be ‘annoyed’ by what’s happening at McLaren

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Oscar Piastri has stayed visibly calm as a commanding championship lead has become an alarming deficit. He’s been on the wrong side of a 58-point swing in the last six races.

Norris has outscored Piastri by an average of nine-10 points per weekend in that span, though the Sprints in the USA and Brazil do somewhat distort the picture. He’s on course for a realistic match-point scenario in Qatar.

Piastri’s slide has featured two controversial team order calls (Italy and Singapore), four crashes and a heavily-debated penalty in Brazil.

But aside from telling McLaren that their Marina Bay ruling was ‘not fair’ over the radio – Norris was allowed to keep P2 after bumping his way past at the start – he has largely retained the emotionless demeanour he has carried all season.

‘I would probably have been a bit more annoyed’ – Max Verstappen on Oscar Piastri slump

Speaking to the Dutch media at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Max Verstappen said it was ‘difficult to judge’ what had happened to Piastri from afar.

But he admits he would have been more ‘annoyed’ if he was in the Australian’s position. A few months ago, he was the strong favourite to win a first title, but now he’s at risk of ending up third.

Verstappen is only 25 points behind Piastri in the championship and has beaten him in each of the last eight events.

“I don’t know what has happened or what hasn’t happened, so it’s difficult for me to judge,” he said, via Autosport.

“But I would probably have been a bit more annoyed, I think, when you’re that far ahead and suddenly that far behind.”

Max Verstappen confused by McLaren’s reaction to Oscar Piastri’s Brazil penalty

The consensus in the F1 paddock is that Piastri’s Brazil penalty was unfair. He was docked 10 seconds for causing a collision with Kimi Antonelli, one that indirectly took Charles Leclerc out of the race.

While McLaren couldn’t have had the 10 seconds overturned afterwards, Piastri picked up two penalty points.

A successful protest would have seen those points wiped. Even if it hadn’t worked out, it would be a symbolic show of support for the struggling 24-year-old.

“Yeah, I don’t know why they handled it like that,” Verstappen said of McLaren’s response to the ruling. “In the end, you can be angry about it, but the penalty will still stand anyway.

“You just have to live with it. If you have a problem with that, then you need to contact the stewards or the FIA and maybe you can talk about it for the future.”