McLaren isn’t sabotaging my title hopes, Piastri says

Oscar Piastri says he has explanations for why he struggled for pace in the two races prior to the Sao Paulo Grand Prix and is sure that McLaren is not sabotaging his title hopes.

Lando Norris’ victory in Mexico City enabled the British driver take the championship lead for the first time since the Saudi Arabian GP in April, as Piastri suffered a second consecutive difficult weekend. The sudden drop-off in form had been confusing for Piastri and led to questions from some sections of his fan base over whether he was being unfairly treated by McLaren, but the Australian dismissed the notion.

“No, it's not the case,” Piastri said. “I think the last couple of weekends have been a little bit more tricky, but we've got pretty clear answers on why that's the case. There's not really too many mysteries on what's happened. I think there's questions on why some differences have cropped up in terms of how I need to drive and stuff like that, but everything is explainable. So there's definitely none of that [sabotaging] going on.”

• Where’s Piastri’s pace gone?

Piastri says he feels much better prepared for the upcoming races having understood what needs to be adapted when it comes to his driving over recent weeks, but in terms of the overall title picture he doesn’t believe McLaren should change its own approach at all.

“I think we're always very open with each other in terms of what we think, whether we think things have been fair, whether we think the right decisions have been made," Piastri said. "We can stand up for ourselves and I feel very comfortable doing that, and that's very much encouraged by the team to make our point for ourselves individually.

“I think it's obviously a difficult dynamic to manage when you've got the two cars in the same team fighting for a championship that only one car can win. There's obviously naturally going to be difficulties with that, but I respect the team for allowing us to both try and fight for the drivers' championship.

“For myself I want to go out there and try and win the championship, knowing that I did it on my own merit and doing the things that I could do in my control, and obviously if you pick one driver you've got a 50% chance that you're not going to be that driver. So I don't think anything needs to change.”

Despite losing a championship lead that he held for so long, Piastri doesn’t see it impacting the way either he or Norris will need to attack the Brazil weekend.

“Not massively, I don't think, especially when it's essentially even," he said. "For me the mindset all year has been about trying to just have the best weekends I can and ultimately drive as fast as I can. At no point through the weekend have I factored in more than normal my risk-taking approach or anything like that, so I think for me it doesn't change anything now that the championship order is a bit different.

“I'll be trying to just go as fast as I can and take the same risks that I normally do, because nine times out of 10, that's a good balance to have.”