Oscar Piastri should be worried as his biggest ‘problem’ could haunt his title chances in Mexico City

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Oscar Piastri’s championship lead took another hit at the United States Grand Prix, putting him under immense pressure to win the title in 2025.

Since his dominant win at Zandvoort, the Aussie has not beaten Lando Norris or Max Verstappen. He finished behind his McLaren teammate at Monza due to controversial team orders, while the Red Bull star claimed victory.

Piastri suffered a disaster in Baku as he crashed out on the opening lap, while he finished behind Norris in Singapore. At COTA, the Aussie was again off the pace of his teammate as he finished fifth, cutting his lead down to 14 points.

Piastri and Norris crashed in the Sprint race at the first corner, while Verstappen took a dominant win. The Dutchman repeated that feat on Sunday, with Norris second, while Piastri struggled with tyre life, qualifying sixth and finishing P5.

Verstappen is now 40 points behind Piastri, having been 104 points behind after the Dutch GP. The McLaren driver is under huge pressure to keep his advantage over the field, but things could get worse at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

McLaren say Oscar Piastri struggled with the low grip at COTA, that ‘problem’ will repeat in Mexico

McLaren suffered from ride height problems in Austin, which hampered their performance compared to Verstappen. Furthermore, the Woking outfit stated that Piastri struggled with the low grip on the circuit and thus could not extract performance.

This presents a major problem for the championship leader, as the Mexico City circuit is also a ‘very low grip’ track, as journalist Julianne Cerasoli notes.

She said via UOL Esporte: “The team is saying that he has difficulty when the track has poor grip, and that’s what McLaren, they don’t say he doesn’t perform well, they say he has opportunities to improve when there are low grip conditions.

“The problem for Piastri is that the next race, the Mexican Grand Prix, is on a track with very low grip, precisely because of the altitude there.

“The difference between Norris and Piastri is now 14 points, a difference that four races ago was more than 40 points. So Piastri has to keep an eye on Verstappen and also on his own teammate, Lando Norris.”

Piastri has not finished on the podium or beaten his two title rivals in the last four races. With his issues in COTA possibly set to repeat in Mexico, the 24-year-old should be very worried, as another tough weekend could see his advantage slip away even further.

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What does Oscar Piastri have to do to hold on to his championship lead?

Piastri’s garage are in a ‘dangerous’ mood as they know this is their chance to win the title. It has put an incredible weight on the Aussie’s shoulders, and it can be argued that he is struggling to cope with it at the moment.

Damon Hill hopes Mark Webber is encouraging Piastri behind the scenes after he was ‘missing in action’ in Austin. The former Red Bull knows from experience about losing a title battle, and he will certainly be guiding his driver through his difficult period.

Several other key figures have offered advice to the Aussie. Jenson Button told Piastri not to think about making mistakes after he almost lost the 2009 championship with Brawn GP following pressure from Sebastian Vettel.

Charles Leclerc thinks Piastri will win the title as he has the ‘advantage’ over Norris and Verstappen. But that could dwindle in Mexico if his issues with low grip continue.