Oscar Piastri receives blunt ‘wake-up call’ warning after Baku disaster

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Chadwick believes that Oscar Piastri’s disastrous weekend in Baku must serve as a “wake-up call” to the championship leader, lest he find himself fumbling for points in the closing stages of the season.

Chadwick points to the fact that Piastri made three major mistakes during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend as signaling a major turning point that will require the Australian driver to refocus if he wants to enter the rest of the season strong.

Oscar Piastri Baku performance should be “wake-up call”

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was easily a low point in Oscar Piastri’s current championship campaign, one characterized by multiple major missteps that have seemed entirely out of character for the normally cool-headed Australian.

First and foremost was a simple lack of pace, both in terms of Piastri’s performance with respect to teammate and title challenger Lando Norris as well as with the rest of the field; the Australian driver was simply slower than he’d ever been before.

Then came qualifying. While the McLaren driver was able to progress into Q3, his day came to an end with his MCL39 buried in the wall, bringing out a red flag and relegating him to ninth on the starting grid.

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Then came the race itself. Piastri jumped the start and, in catching himself, his McLaren initiated anti-stall that saw the rest of the field streak past the papaya machine into the first turn. Moments later, his race was over after he once again clobbered a barrier.

While the pain of his first retirement in 34 races was somewhat eased by the fact that his primary title challenger Lando Norris could only manage a seventh-place finish, the fumbles of both McLarens allowed Max Verstappen to win two races and become a ‘hail Mary’ option for the 2025 championship.

And according to former racer turned Sky Sports F1 commentator Jamie Chadwick, that disastrous Baku weekend should be Piastri’s “wake-up call” before we prepare for the rest of the year.

Speaking of the McLaren Racing operation as a whole, Chadwick said, “I know after this weekend, they’re gonna be sick of seeing Max out front, but I think they need a reset, big time. They need a clean weekend, work out exactly where the performance of their car is.

“And I think for Oscar, especially, this weekend is going to be a bit of a wake-up call, because I’ve never seen him like that.

“That’s three big mistakes in one weekend, which is not like Oscar at all. So he needs a bounce-back weekend.

“He also needs — performance wise, he was lacking performance to Lando all weekend, as well as in Monza. So he’s to find something to really close out this title.”

It’s a gloomy prognosis to be sure, but Piastri has indeed showed the consistency necessary of a prospective champion. While he has made mistakes — such as his off into the grass during the season opening Australian Grand Prix — he has boasted an ability to weather storms of chaos and regain his footing after a challenging event.

Of course, there are additional pressures to be found at this stage in a championship hunt, and we have yet to see how Piastri will manage them.

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