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Oscar Piastri was the robot for months. Undisturbed, precise, ice-cold. The Australian led the championship with authority. Until Mexico. The shock start - from P7 to P10 in one corner - was painful. But his words afterward were worse.
"I don't understand anymore"
After the race, Piastri sounded lost. "I need to somehow drive differently," he said. Rare vulnerability from a driver who always had answers.
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"I'm struggling to understand why I can't extract as much speed from the car as before." That delicate balance between car, tires and driver? It's gone. And the worst part: he doesn't know why.
His driving style brought him success all year. Suddenly it doesn't work anymore. Piastri admitted not "understanding" it. That's a driver who's lost his way.
The downward spiral:
● Baku crash early September (first major error)
● Incidents with Norris stacking up
● Mexico shock start P7 to P10
● Championship lead lost to Norris
● Open doubt about own driving style
The crash that changed everything
Baku was the turning point. That Azerbaijan crash triggered something. Since then, errors stacked up. Collisions with Lando Norris. Internal tensions at McLaren sharpened.
What started as form dip grew into confidence crisis. The ice-cold character disappeared. Traded for someone groping in darkness.
Mexico was rock bottom. A shadow of the driver who dominated the season. The robot turned out human after all. And humans break under pressure.
Norris flourishes while Piastri fails
The dynamic within McLaren turned 180 degrees. Lando Norris, liberated after his own misfortune at Zandvoort, took the lead. For the first time since April he's on top.
Piastri is no longer the hunter. He's the prey. Hunted by Max Verstappen AND by the man in the other garage. That double pressure eats at him.
"Still prefer to be in my position," says Piastri. But does that still sound convincing? Or is it bravado masking vulnerability?
Can the ice-cold champion reinvent himself?
Piastri has four races to prove this is temporary. That the robot resurfaces. That ice-cold calm returns.
Or was Mexico the breaking point? The moment when combined pressure became too much? The coming weeks aren't just a test of speed. They're a test of mental resilience.
The paddock question: does the young Australian definitively buckle under this pressure? Or will there be resurrection? Norris believes the first scenario. Verstappen smells blood. And Piastri? He's searching for answers.
The Piastri paradox: how did the field's most unflappable driver suddenly become its most vulnerable?
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
C. Sainz jr
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