Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Oscar Piastri’s subdued fifth place in the Spanish Grand Prix has intensified questions about his form at McLaren, after Nico Rosberg and Jacques Villeneuve said his performances and standing in the paddock have slipped sharply from last year.
Barcelona gave that criticism a clear result to point to. Piastri finished fifth while teammate Lando Norris took third, and one report put the gap between the McLaren drivers at around 35 seconds by the flag. Piastri was unable to fight for the podium on pace and said afterward that grip and tyre wear were the main problems.
Asked if he understood why he had lost so much time, Piastri said: “Not really.” The McLaren driver added that he had tried “many different things” and run into “many different problems,” admitting he was surprised by the scale of the struggle. He said there were moments that felt better, but those gains were usually punished a few laps later, leaving him with what he called “not an easy afternoon.”
Rosberg, the 2016 Formula 1 world champion, was blunt in his assessment on Sky Sports. “Not going too well for him as of late,” he said. Rosberg added that Piastri’s “market value has taken a bit of a plunge in the last weeks and months,” and argued that with “these new regulations, new cars, Oscar is not feeling too comfortable yet.” He said that was unexpected because Piastri had been “really on a par with Lando all the time” last year, whereas “this year Lando has jumped ahead somewhat.”
Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 Formula 1 world champion, took the criticism further. He said Piastri had been “the talk of the paddock” midway through last season, but then “collapsed” and had not recovered. “And nobody’s talking about him anymore,” Villeneuve said, describing the change as having happened “in the space of what? Like six months? Even less.”
The picture is not as straightforward as those verdicts suggest. Across the season so far, the underlying numbers between the McLaren drivers remain close. The summaries show Piastri leading Norris 4-3 in qualifying and 4-3 in race results, with only five points separating them, while both drivers have scored two podium finishes.
That makes Barcelona significant less because it settles the argument and more because it sharpened it. One difficult weekend can be absorbed, but this one fed an existing sense that Piastri has drifted away from the front fight since his podiums in Japan and Miami. Piastri himself accepted that both he and McLaren need to improve.
The pressure is broader than one driver’s race. McLaren is reported to be 121 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ championship and 49 behind Ferrari, so a weekend in which Norris reached the podium while Piastri faded only adds to the scrutiny over whether this is a temporary dip or the start of a more serious slide.