Oscar Piastri hints at off-track problems ‘in the lead up’ to disastrous Azerbaijan weekend

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Oscar Piastri is now fighting from behind in the Formula 1 title race with just three events remaining this season.

Since the summer break, the McLaren driver has been through a bit of a rough spell of form. It includes multiple messy incidents and a lack of pace.

The Aussie has even missed the podium at each of the last five weekends and surrendered control of the drivers’ championship to teammate Lando Norris.

Piastri needs to make sure he wins one of the next two races at the very least, to keep the title battle alive down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.

Piastri’s relationship with Norris is ‘better than ever’ as the intensity of their fight ramps up, which is an unusual situation for them to be in. However, Piastri says McLaren can’t keep both drivers happy, which could cause them some problems over the next month or so.

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Oscar Piastri had problems ‘in the lead up’ to disastrous Azerbaijan weekend

Piastri wasn’t a fan of a McLaren modification at the last race in Brazil, as he suffered another frustrating weekend, including a 10-second penalty for a collision on Sunday.

But it was the latest in a line of messy weekends for the 24-year-old, who seems to have been caught up in more incidents than usual.

The run started in Baku just a few months ago, when he crashed twice in the span of 24 hours, suffering his only retirement of the season to date. On F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, he hinted at off-track issues ‘in the lead up’ to the race.

“Ultimately, a combination of quite a few things,” he said. “Obviously, the race before that was Monza, which I didn’t feel was a particularly great weekend from my own performance, and there was obviously what happened with the pit stops. But then in Baku itself, Friday was tough, things weren’t working.

“I was overdriving. I wasn’t very happy with how I was driving. And ultimately, probably trying to make up for that a little bit on Saturday. I don’t think so [had too much confidence]. I had good memories of Baku from last year, but I knew that didn’t guarantee me anything at all for this year at Baku,” Piastri continued.

“I think there was kind of some things in the lead up let’s say, that were maybe not the most helpful. Then things that happened on the weekend. We had an engine problem in FP1 that kind of unsettled things a bit. Then I was driving not that well.

“We were on the C6 tyres that weekend, which [are] now notoriously tricky to handle. There was just a lot of little things that eventually kind of added up.

“Ultimately, I felt like on Saturday my pace was very good, I was trying a bit too hard, and I think that led to the crash in qualifying.”

READ MORE: Oscar Piastri told the new ‘weakness’ he must fix to fight Lando Norris for F1 title is not ‘nerves’

What Oscar Piastri needs to do to beat Lando Norris to the 2025 Formula 1 title

Mark Webber thinks Norris is ‘backing’ up his chat with the way that he is driving on track currently, which is a critical part of the title fight.

He has all the momentum right now, which is handy not just for this year, but also heading into the 2026 F1 regulations.

Norris’ ‘brutal’ flaw his disappeared and left him in command of the situation, but he has to remain wary of his teammate’s talents.

Piastri knows that he needs to outscore Norris over the next two race weekends to stand a chance at the finale, and that starts with finding a little more consistency behind the wheel. It’s time to avoid mistakes.