Ted Kravitz feared he’d upset Oscar Piastri if he asked one ‘rude’ question about McLaren struggles

Follow us on Google Discover

Oscar Piastri’s slump began at the Azerbaijan GP in September, when he crashed out of both qualifying and the race. As Ted Kravitz says, it was a completely unrecognisable performance.

Piastri started the race ninth after finding the barriers in qualifying. Though it was a rare mistake, it came during the most disrupted session in the sport’s history, with six red flags shown and Charles Leclerc also hitting the wall in Q3.

So while McLaren could forgive that mistake, Piastri then made the cardinal error of jumping the start, before wedging his car in the barriers again on the opening lap.

Piastri steadied himself with a P4 at the following race in Singapore, but he hasn’t scored a podium since Baku. Come the end of the season, his fans may fear that it will be a decisive moment in the title race against Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Ted Kravitz wanted to put the ‘security questions’ to Oscar Piastri

Speaking on the Road to Success podcast, Kravitz recalled that it almost looked as if it wasn’t ‘the real Oscar Piastri’ behind the wheel.

That gave the Sky Sports interviewer an idea. When he spoke to Piastri in Singapore, he was going to ask him ‘security questions’, hammering home the point that the errors were entirely uncharacteristic.

But while Piastri is known as one of the calmest drivers in F1, Kravitz feared he’d upset him with what was potentially a ‘rude’ gambit.

Still, it’s true that Piastri built his title bid on consistency and composure, two attributes that appear to have deserted him in a crucial phase of the season.

Kravitz said: “I had this idea to find out if we’re talking to the real Oscar Piastri. Let’s ask him the security questions – ‘sorry, Mr Piastri, can I just take you through the security questions? Can I have your mother’s maiden name? Name of your first pet? Now I’m satisfied I’m dealing with the real Oscar Piastri, who was driving that car last week?’

“And then I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll put myself in his head’. Maybe he’ll think, ‘It’s all very clever, but that’s a bit rude. It was me driving, and I just made a mistake.’ So I decided not to do that.”

The difference between the two McLaren drivers? It’s all in the steering wheel

The ‘chatter’ in the F1 paddock is that McLaren are backing Norris over Piastri. The Briton is a product of the team’s academy and has raced for them since 2019.

But Juan Pablo Montoya doesn’t buy into this theory. He says Norris’ steering inputs explain his advantage.

The new championship leader is much more active, making constant corrections as he throws the car into the corner. Piastri’s single-turn, more controlled style was rewarding him earlier in the season but doesn’t necessarily suit the current version of the MCL39.

Piastri’s performance is still circuit-dependent, which could be the weakness that costs him. He only finished on the podium in one of the last six races in 2024.