Oscar Piastri Blames “Mysterious Lack of Pace” for Disastrous Mexico GP Qualifying

Oscar Piastri is now suffering from a massive performance slump compared to his dominant start to the 2025 season. Piastri was the championship favorite and had a massive lead in the title standings.

However, the Aussie is now leading by just 14 points, which can be covered by Lando Norris at the Mexico GP itself. The 24-year-old now ponders over the ‘mysterious’ slump in pace as he qualified in only P8 for the main race, P7 after a penalty to Carlos Sainz ahead of him.

At the US GP, Oscar Piastri was unable to fare well either. As such, the Aussie believed that his struggles were track specific and that he would comeback as a winning force at the Mexican GP.

However, the 24-year-old was unable to achieve a significant race start for the Mexican race and will start the race from P7. Meanwhile, Lando Norris recorded a stellar lap and clinched the pole position by a massive gap over the rivals.

Oscar Piastri is now dumbofunded by the reasons behind his mysterious slump in performance. The championship leader reckoned that the gap in pace between him and the rivals, especially his teammate Lando Norris was big all throughout the weekend, as was the case in the Qualifying session. Piastri insisted that there were some sectors where he could imporve and tidy up his pace.

However, Oscar Piastri boldly claimed that he did a reasonable job and his lap time was decent enough to grant him a good starting position. A P7 start was definitely not in the cards for the championship leader.

As such, the 24-year-old asserted that the lack of pace in his car was a bit of a mystery and that he was as unknown as the fans were on the reasons behind his sudden slump in performance.

The gap was big in that session and it’s been big all weekend, There’s been some things where I felt like I can tidy it up and make some easy progress, but not all of it. And I think in qualifying, I feel like I did a reasonable job and the car felt reasonable as well. So, yeah, the lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery.

Oscar Piastri said, as reported by motorsport.com.

Oscar Piastri reveals the ‘most surprising’ factor behind his performance slump

The US GP outing was woeful for Oscar Piastri as he could only manage to finish in P5, starting the race from P6, which is not good as per McLaren standards. Even though Piastri was confident to bounce back in Mexico, he has been unable to do so. Amid the problematic state, the Aussie pondered over the most surprising factor in his sudden downfall in performance.

Oscar Piastri noted that his struggles in Mexico weren’t much different from his problems in Austin the previous week. The Aussie reckoned that the most surprising factor this week was that his gap to Lando Norris was pretty much the same every session, with no improvements.

Despite feeling that he recorded some decent laps, he was always off by over four or five-tenths, which is definitely a big difference in pace between the two Papaya drivers.

In some ways, not too dissimilar, I think what’s been a bit surprising here has just been that the gap [to Norris] has been the same pretty much every session. I feel like I’ve done some decent laps through the weekend, but everything seems to be about four or five tenths off.

Oscar Piastri noted

The 2025 season is nearing its completion and will only have four races left after the culmination of the Mexican GP. Certainly, the year has turned out to be extremely exciting and interesting towards the final stages.

Now, it will be riveting to witness which driver manages to excel at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit and achieve the coveted race win on Mexican soil.

Read More: Pato O’Ward Hospitalized After 30-Lap FP1 Stint in Lando Norris’ Mclaren at Mexico GP

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