Piastri insists his “mentality hasn’t changed” amid title pressure

Written by Kavi Khandelwal, Edited by Meghana Sree

Formula One championship leader Oscar Piastri insisted his "mentality hasn't changed" despite a challenging 2025 United States Grand Prix weekend that saw his rivals take a significant bite out of his points lead.

Credit: Formula One

The Australian's difficult weekend began with a disastrous sprint race on Saturday, where he was eliminated on Lap 1 in a multi-car collision at Turn 1. Piastri, starting P3, was tagged by Nico Hülkenberg's Sauber, which in turn launched his McLaren into his teammate and chief title rival, Lando Norris, putting both cars out of the race.

Following that DNF, Piastri started Sunday's Grand Prix from P6 and finished a distant P5 relative to podium-finishers Max Verstappen and Norris, admitting he simply did not have the performance to fight for more.

"Today was what it was," Piastri said after the Grand Prix. "I think with the pace that I had, I did more or less everything I could, gain the spot at the start and, couldn't really ask for much more with the pace that I had."

The McLaren driver appeared to be in damage limitation mode, focusing on maximising his own performance in a car that was not on pace.

"I need to try and understand why the pace was lacking this weekend but, you know, not everything was bad," Piastri explained. "With the pace that I had, [I] tried to execute the race as best as I could and that's all I can ask."

The combination of the sprint race DNF and the P5 finish saw both Norris and Red Bull’s Verstappen take a "big chunk" out of his championship lead.

Verstappen, who won both the sprint and the Grand Prix, is now just 40 points behind, while Norris is only 14 points adrift.

Despite the shrinking gap, Piastri was adamant that the pressure is nothing new and that he has never felt more secure in his position.

"Obviously Max [Verstappen] is closing in and so is Lando [Norris] but, it's not been comfortable at any point this year really," he stated.

"It's been a little bit bigger at certain points but at no point has it felt like I could relax or sit back. So my mentality hasn't changed and it certainly won't now."

The Australian remains focused on his own execution as the tight three-way title fight heads to Mexico:

"Just trying to do the best job I can every weekend and naturally the results will take care of themselves."