Vettel’s advice for Piastri as McLaren driver suffers fresh championship blow

Oscar Piastri doesn’t need anyone to tell him where his championship hopes imploded, or even how it happened, he needs people to “stand by” him and support him.

That’s according to four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who knows all too well what it’s like to achieve the ultimate goal in the sport, and also how horribly wrong it can go even from a position of strength.

Sebastian Vettel: I don’t think he needs anyone to explain to him what went wrong

When Formula 1 returned from its summer break, Piastri was the favourite to win the F1 2025 World title as he clinched the victory in the Dutch Grand Prix on a day when his nearest rival, his teammate Lando Norris, retired with an engine failure.

Piastri took a 34-point lead over the Briton, and all but saw off Max Verstappen’s title hopes as he surged 104 points ahead of the Red Bull driver.

But in the races since Zandvoort, momentum shifted towards Verstappen and now more recently Norris.

While Piastri’s title rivals were winning races, the Australian not only crashed out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the opening lap, but he also crashed in the Austin and Brazilian Sprint events.

It meant he scored just over half of Norris’ tally since the Dutch Grand Prix, 46 points to 90, and about a third of Verstappen’s 121.

More tellingly, his troubles have handed the lead in the Drivers’ standings to Norris, who is nine points up after Saturday’s Sprint in Brazil.

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Piastri’s chances of regaining the lead in Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix suffered a blow in qualifying where he finished P4 with Norris on pole position. Although Piastri was on provisional pole after their first run in Q3, mistakes from the Australian meant he fell 0.375s short of Norris’ 1:09.511.

A rueful Piastri told the media after qualifying: “Just feels like things are not flowing that easily at the moment.

“I had pretty good confidence in the car yesterday [Friday]. Today felt like it was a bit trickier for everybody, and I just struggled to get the most out of the car.”

Struggling is the word best used to describe Piastri’s form in the last handful of races as the 24-year-old has lamented a lack of pace that he cannot understand coupled with the need to tweak his driving style at slippery circuits such as Austin and Mexico City.

It’s led to suggestions about where and what has gone wrong from former F1 drivers and pundits, even conspiracies on social media, but according to Vettel none of that is of any help to Piastri.

What he needs right now, is an arm around his shoulder and support from his McLaren team, which Vettel is confident he “has”.

“First of all, he needs some peace and quiet,” the German told Sky Deutschland in Brazil.

“I don’t think he needs anyone to explain to him what went wrong; he knows that himself.

“What we all need in a situation like this is someone who is there for us and stands by us. He has the people in his team.

“He needs them now, so that he can move on quickly and get back to driving freely again if possible.”

Read next: Uncovered: The truth behind Norris’ pole and Piastri’s P4 in Brazil