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Peter Windsor shares the key ‘issues’ he’s spotted in Oscar Piastri’s McLaren onboard footage

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After the promising start to the second half of his F1 season this year, Oscar Piastri suffered disappointing back-to-back weekends in Austin and Mexico.

Piastri has not been on the podium since his third place during the Singapore Grand Prix, having achieved P5 and P8 for the US and Mexico GPs respectively.

Qualifying has been one of his biggest hurdles to get on top of this season in his battle against teammate Lando Norris, after suffering an embarrassing Q1 exit in Mexico which put him 17th on the grid.

Piastri admitted that he needed to do a ‘better job’ when speaking to media after the race weekend, especially given that McLaren is now under pressure from Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship and all points are valuable.

Peter Windsor believes he has spotted something on Piastri’s onboard camera that might be the root of his qualifying challenges when speaking on the Cameron CC podcast.

Peter Windsor believes Oscar Piastri is ‘over-aggressive’ compared to F1 rivals

Piastri has shown that he can muscle his way past Norris at the start of races at both the Hungarian and the Italian GPs this season, however, that aggressiveness is impacting his driving in qualifying according to Windsor.

“Carlos has almost got the level of Lando Norris in terms of the way he’s softened all of his inputs over the last 18 months,” said Windsor.

“His corners are a little bit more tighter than they used to be, and I think that’s just years of living with Charles Leclerc, and I’d say he was right there with Land.

“Oscar is still shorter than both of them, but he’s still got issues where he is over-aggressive on the throttle and brakes.”

F1 Grand Prix of Mexico - Final Practice
Photo by Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

McLaren needs Oscar Piastri to do a ‘better job’ in Sao Paulo

McLaren is likely hoping that Piastri can have a strong qualifying session in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, given they are under pressure from Ferrari and Red Bull.

Verstappen is likely to take an engine penalty for a change of components ahead of the weekend, following a swap of his current pool in Mexico.

READ MORE: The most successful F1 teams and engine manufacturers at the Sao Paulo GP

This means there is an opportunity for McLaren to secure a front-row lockout on the grid, although Ferrari’s pace in qualifying has been impressive as of late.

Carlos Sainz will want to go out on a high with the team, while Charles Leclerc is still within a mathematical chance of challenging for the title with four races left.