Ted Kravitz shares why McLaren privately felt Oscar Piastri was ‘so slow’ at the United States GP

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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri only has to wait a few days to put the United States Grand Prix behind him.

Oscar Piastri is still leading the drivers’ championship, but momentum seems to be very much in Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ favour.

Verstappen has only dropped 14 points since the Hungarian Grand Prix, when many people, including Red Bull themselves, ruled the Dutchman out of championship contention.

Helmut Marko told Verstappen to make McLaren’s drivers nervous after winning in Baku, and he’s done just that at the United States Grand Prix.

The Dutchman scored 33 points out of a possible 33 at the Circuit of the Americas, while Norris put a Sprint Race collision with Piastri behind him to finish second on Sunday.

Piastri only scored 10 points across the weekend, meaning his lead over Norris and Verstappen in the championship has significantly shrunk.

Jenson Button has given some advice to Piastri in his championship challenge, but his pace across the weekend will be a concern to McLaren.

Ted Kravitz has shared what the team were privately telling him during the race about his struggles, but the excuse doesn’t quite add up.

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McLaren suggested Oscar Piastri’s lack of pace was due to tyre life at the United States Grand Prix

David Croft cut to Kravitz on Sky Sports F1 (19/10 8:37 pm) in the pit lane when McLaren sent a dummy radio message telling Norris to ‘pit to overtake’ as he looked to clear Charles Leclerc ahead of him.

Kravitz said: “They’re about six laps too early, especially if they’re trying to extend the medium tyre, unless they want to go onto the hard, this would be a bit of a weird one.

“Just, by the way while I’m on Crofty, I’ve asked McLaren, what’s going on with Oscar Piastri’s pace? He just seems so slow compared to Norris.

“The answer? He is saving his tyres, trying to keep his tyres alive with the issues that we’ve heard he’s had with the front.

“But, that gives us some answer as to Oscar’s pace.”

Earlier in the race, Martin Brundle heard an odd radio message from Piastri to his race engineer.

Piastri said on the radio during the opening few laps of the race: “The front left [tyre] doesn’t look or feel great.”

Brundle responded to that message and said: “Which is unusual in a way because it’s an anti-clockwise circuit, so you’d imagine you’d punish your right-front harder except here, you’ve got turn 16, 17 and 18 are massively fast and long.

“Actually, you hit four apexes through there, so that would be hurting his front left.

“But, in many of the left-handers, it’s just a passenger, but that could sometimes hurt the surface of the tyre as well.”

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Why McLaren’s reasoning for Oscar Piastri’s slow United States GP doesn’t add up

Piastri has struggled with tyre management earlier in his F1 career, but it’s an issue that hasn’t caused him many problems this season.

Throughout the weekend, the Australian was substantially slower than Norris, meaning that even when he was pushing his hardest in qualifying, he was the second-best McLaren driver.

Mark Webber believes Piastri is still confident behind the scenes, but that mood might start to change if he loses his position at the top of the championship.

The 24-year-old desperately needs a race win to reestablish his advantage; otherwise, everything could be to play for by the time they reach Abu Dhabi, and it might even be out of Piastri’s hands.