Oscar Piastri’s Struggles at the 2025 Mexico City GP
Oscar Piastri will start the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix from seventh position on the grid, rather than eighth, due to Carlos Sainz’s five-place penalty. However, this small gain offers little comfort as the Formula 1 championship leader’s fastest Q3 lap was 0.588 seconds slower than his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
Piastri has been unable to explain the consistent gap he has faced against Norris throughout the weekend. Team principal Andrea Stella described the difference as “milliseconds in every corner.” Despite this, Piastri remained optimistic about the potential for improvement.
Disappointing Qualifying Performance
Max Verstappen also had a disappointing qualifying session by his standards but will still start two places ahead of Piastri. The Mexico City circuit is known for its challenging first corner and the difficulty of overtaking, which adds to the pressure on drivers.
After the qualifying session, Piastri admitted that the gap between him and Norris was significant and consistent throughout the 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,” Piastri said. “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.”
Similar Challenges in Austin
Before taking to the track, Piastri expressed confidence that the struggles he faced during the US GP were specific to the Circuit of The Americas. When asked whether the issues he was facing in Mexico were different from those in Austin, he was hesitant.
“In some ways, not too dissimilar,” he said. “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.”
Difficult Path to Q3
Piastri had a tough time making it to Q3. Dramatic track evolution during Q1 pushed most of the field to do an extra run on new soft tires, forcing Piastri to attempt his first Q2 run on previously used ones. That lap only secured him 10th place, which was deemed unsafe given the dropping lap times. He had to nail his next push lap to secure a spot in Q3.
Even then, he finished in seventh place, just 0.079 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who narrowly missed out on Q3 in 11th.
“I think from Austin there were some things that were clear,” Piastri said. “But even those things that were clear were a bit unusual, some of the differences. Again, this weekend it’s been a bit different.”
Consistent Challenges
Piastri emphasized that he hasn’t changed his driving style since the start of the season, even during the races when things were going well. He acknowledged the difficulty in identifying where the lap time was lacking this weekend.
“But I’m sure we’ll find it,” he added, showing determination to address the issues and improve his performance in the coming races.
