Mystic Villeneuve? Comments resurface after Oscar Piastri Baku crash

Championship leader Oscar Piastri is “feeling the pressure”, according to 1997 champion Jacques Villeneuve, who made that comment after Piastri’s Baku qualifying crash.

Followed by two further errors on Grand Prix Sunday – which saw Piastri drop to the back and hit the wall on Lap 1 – it brings Villeneuve’s comments from Zandvoort back into focus. There, Villeneuve had flagged up the threat of a “mindset” shift for Piastri after he opened up a sizeable championship lead, one which could lead to “mistakes”.

Oscar Piastri: Can he steady Drivers’ Championship charge?

By the end of the Dutch Grand Prix, Piastri had moved 34 points clear of McLaren teammate Lando Norris at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. Piastri took the win, and Norris was due to complete what had become the customary McLaren one-two. But, when Norris and his McLaren MCL39 ground to a halt, suddenly, Piastri looked like the overwhelming title favourite.

Two rounds have since passed, and both races were won comfortably by a resurgent Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. Piastri’s lead over Norris meanwhile is down to 25 points.

Piastri has developed a reputation – stretching back to his junior career – of being cool, calm and collected under pressure; unflappable. Yet, in Baku, he was one of several drivers to crash out during qualifying. Come race day, he made a false start, went into anti-stall and dropped to the back, before ploughing into the wall at Turn 5.

Reacting to Piastri’s qualifying crash, Villeneuve, in an Instagram story, had said: “Piastri put it in the wall, the championship leader. He’s been driving erratically this weekend, so it looks a little bit tough.

“He’s feeling the pressure, [but] saved by the fact that Norris messed up his laps as well.”

Baku was an underwhelming weekend for McLaren overall, as Norris missed the chance to inflict more damage on Piastri’s Championship lead. Norris managed P7 only.

All eyes will be on Piastri to see how the Australian racer responds in Singapore. Could it be that Villeneuve – speaking from experience as a World Champion – already foreshadowed Piastri’s future internal battle?

Speaking on Sky F1 after Piastri had gone 34 points clear of Norris at Zandvoort, Villeneuve said: “It changes the mindset, because now he has a cushion, so he’s got control over the championship.

“It’s his championship to lose. That’s very different.

“You second-guess yourself. You drive a little bit more on the defensive, which pushes you into making a mistake — or do you become a little bit lazy?

“We’ve seen drivers in that position, [who] lose so many points because they change their way of driving, because they have that little cushion, and that creates extra stress.

“So we just don’t know how he’s made yet, you know? And that will be interesting to see how he evolves.”

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella fully believes that Piastri will bounce back, armed with Baku as an important learning exercise.

Having worked with F1 icons Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, Stella believes this is a common experience which Piastri has gone through.

“I’ve worked with multi-champion drivers,” Stella stated, “and in every season, even the most dominant, even by one of the best drivers in the history of F1, like Michael Schumacher, I have seen events like this.

“Events in which the most you take away is the learning.

“Things become, for some reasons, like, difficult, as soon as you misjudge the grip available, you get highly punished.

“So a one-off weekend in which things don’t go your way, and you ultimately have lots to review, is no surprise, no exception that we should be worried about. Because this has happened to pretty much all champions, even the ones with the best track record.”

He added: “I had a chat with Oscar and his mind is already fully functional, processing, he’s already into ‘that’s what I’ve learned, I look forward to the next one’. And also we said with Oscar that today, even without issues, it’s not like there were many points available, starting P9.

“So, lots of learning for Oscar and no points.”

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