Oscar Piastri has made a McLaren set-up choice that’s left him consistently slower than Lando Norris

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Oscar Piastri is slowly watching his drivers’ championship hopes slip away as the final triple-header of the 2025 Formula 1 season approaches.

McLaren wrapped up the constructors’ championship with six race weekends to go, meaning both drivers could fully concentrate on their individual campaigns.

Oscar Piastri was leading the championship when McLaren secured their second consecutive title win, but Lando Norris was already cutting into his lead.

Ever since Piastri had to give up second place to Norris at Monza following a slow pit stop, he’s been beaten by his teammate.

Norris had a perfect weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and is now 24 points clear of Piastri with three races to go.

Piastri wasn’t keen on a change McLaren made to his car in Brazil, and journalist Diego Mejia has shared more details about why he’s so much slower than Norris in certain areas of the track.

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Oscar Piastri consistently slower than Lando Norris in corners after McLaren set-up change

Mejia was speaking on the Pit Pass F1 Podcast about Piastri’s recent downturn. He explained: “I think you could see, and he said so, that he was in a better place since the weekend started.

“Unfortunately, I think the way the setup had to be adjusted didn’t play to his strengths once again.

“It seems like we somehow ended up in a territory which has been quite familiar to him for the past couple of weekends, Mexico and Austin too where because of the circumstances and the conditions and the way the track punishes the tyres, it seems like he was once again with the setup of the car in a place where he wasn’t able to be at his best.

“More so for the Grand Prix than what it was for the Sprint, because obviously they could run the cars lower for the Sprint, it’s a short race.

“Lando had clean air and everything, but the way he was able to open the gap while they were running one and two was quite notable.

“And if you looked at the qualifying laps from both guys, you could see the same trend that we saw, especially in Mexico, on the slower corners for some reason.

“Lando can turn the car without having to turn the wheel as much. He doesn’t have to put as much lock as Oscar has to put in most of the slower corners.

“And then sometimes this has a consequence in terms of the exit of the corner and how sometimes Oscar gets a little snap later on, and his cornering is not just as good as Lando’s.

“So yeah, once again, his driving style wasn’t able to be as effective as Lando was with the MCL39.”

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How McLaren internally felt about Oscar Piastri’s 2025 victories

Piastri won four of the first six races before adding victories in Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands to his tally later in the campaign.

Norris’ back-to-back victories in Mexico City and Brazil mean he’s now level with Piastri for wins with his teammate this year, which is important if the pair somehow finish level on points at the end of the season.

However, there have been suggestions that some people in McLaren have devalued Piastri’s wins, believing that Norris was underperforming, as opposed to the Australian being the quickest driver on track.

McLaren developed new suspension components halfway through the season to make the MCL39 more drivable.

Norris decided to use the new parts, but Piastri never adopted them, and it’s now easy to wonder where that’s going to be the deciding factor in the championship if the Australian is struggling to drive his car as effectively as his teammate.