McLaren internal decision did ‘even more damage’ to Oscar Piastri’s confidence than any mistake

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Oscar Piastri has rapidly fallen from being the favourite to win the 2025 F1 drivers’ title to trailing his McLaren teammate Lando Norris by 24 points with just three rounds left.

The 24-year-old seized control of the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship after he won the Dutch Grand Prix and Norris retired at Zandvoort in August. Piastri left round 18/24 atop the charts by 34 points, but he did not outscore the 25-year-old over any of the subsequent six rounds.

Norris has even recorded a 46-point swing in the standings over the past three rounds in the United States, Mexico and Brazil. While Piastri only finished P5 during each of the past three Grands Prix, Norris earned P2 in Texas and then won from pole in Mexico City and Sao Paulo.

McLaren also saw Norris win from pole as Piastri crashed in the Sprint in Brazil last weekend. His crash with Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, which also forced Ferrari star Charles Leclerc to retire, even saw Piastri slapped with a 10-second penalty during the Sao Paulo GP.

McLaren damaged Oscar Piastri’s confidence by blaming him for the COTA Sprint crash with Lando Norris

The wheels have truly fallen off the wagon for Piastri since he won at Zandvoort to boast the biggest lead that either McLaren driver has held atop the championship so far in the 2025 F1 season. The cracks have also only grown since Piastri crashed in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

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

Piastri crashed in qualifying in Baku, before jumping the start of the race and crashing out on Lap 1. McLaren’s refusal to intervene also ensured Piastri struggled to get over Norris making contact during the Singapore Grand Prix, having felt wronged by the Briton’s overtake for P3.

Additionally, Piastri crashed into Norris in the Sprint at COTA, having tried to get the cutback out of Turn 1 at the start but without the room as Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso were on his inside. The crash took them both out of the F1 Sprint.

And Auto Motor und Sport now reports that McLaren ‘internally blamed’ Piastri for crashing into Norris during the COTA Sprint. The Woking team’s decision also did ‘even more damage’ to the Australian’s confidence than any of the mistakes he has made over the 2025 season.

Lando Norris has outscored Oscar Piastri by 46 points since their crash in the COTA Sprint

Piastri’s confidence had already taken a dent as McLaren imposed sporting repercussions on Norris for the incident in Singapore, which would have let the former choose when to go first in their final Q3 runs. But the Sprint crash at COTA saw McLaren drop Norris’ repercussions.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from parents to celebration

McLaren then privately deciding that Piastri caused their double DNF during the F1 Sprint at COTA then weighed on the Melbourne native during the races in Mexico City and Sao Paulo. Now, the papaya pals’ results in those two events have put Norris in control of the title fight.

Piastri only qualified P8 while Norris scored pole for the Mexico City Grand Prix with a Q3 lap time 0.588s faster than the Australian’s lap. After adopting P7 on the grid after Carlos Sainz’s penalty, Piastri also only finished the race in P5 while Norris won a whopping 42.065s ahead.

Only 0.185s separated the papaya pals in qualifying for the F1 Sprint in Brazil, as Norris took pole and Piastri secured P3. But the margin at McLaren grew to 0.375s during qualifying for the Sao Paulo GP, which Norris won with a 15.749s gap to Piastri in P5 after his 10s penalty.