Golf analogy made as Oscar Piastri’s F1 title ‘jitters’ scrutinised

Oscar Piastri suffered from “jitters” amid the pressure of the F1 title fight hotting up, according to former driver Jolyon Palmer.

Championship leader Piastri crashed out in Azerbaijan on a disastrous opening lap last time out as he endured an uncharacteristically scrappy weekend littered with errors.

The Australian is 25 points clear of McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who finished seventh, in the title race, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is 69 points off with seven races remaining.

Revisiting the unprecedented mistakes from Piastri in Baku, Palmer made a comparison to golf.

“I think we saw, just purely, a chink in the armour,” Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast. “We just saw a driver making a really basic human mistake. I can’t see anything other than he just got jittery. He must have got jittery.

“I was trying to relate this across sports. I was thinking something like The Masters, you play four rounds of golf. Rory McIlroy has played golf for years and years and years, he knows how to put from three yards.

“But suddenly you are on the back nine on the final day and basic shots become really tricky and you tense up. You start swinging in a weird way, and I think that’s what happened to Oscar.

“He starts ninth. So he’s a bit tense. You are starting from the mid-pack in Baku. It’s really narrow, especially at Turn 2, Turn 3, Turn 4. The amount of time someone has been bundled into the wall there at the start is pretty high. And he’s got his championship rival ahead of him.

“I think he’s simply got a bit twitchy. That’s just pressure, it’s jitters and the rest of it was compounded by the first mistake.”

The former Renault driver added: “We’re at the 12th. You know where you are going, but it’s the tricky 12th. It’s the par three with the water and the bunkers. It felt like that.

“We’re not there yet but he’s got a lead, he’s defending a lead and this was a tricky hole because it’s Baku.

“I felt on Sunday before the race that this was a really big one for the championship, because it felt like one where one of the McLarens would come through to the podium, but one of them could end up in a collision, or bogged up behind Yuki Tsunoda or George Russell.

“It felt like it might have been the day for a good points swing. If that goes for Piastri, he is going to be champion. If he takes a 40 point lead away from Baku, he’ll be there.

“But equally it might be the day it all goes wrong for him and suddenly Lando is 15 points back. It felt like that jeopardy was there. You’ve got perils all around you and it’s Baku. So that’s my analogy for the 12th, because it’s not the last hole, but it’s a tricky hole to get through.”

Is Oscar Piastri overdriving?

Palmer suggested that Piastri is currently overdriving, which he thinks could be the result of Norris’ improved performances of late.

“Normally I would say park it and look ahead, the problem is is that the next track is Singapore, so there’s similar issues,” Palmer said.

“A street circuit again, if you make mistakes you are going to find the barriers and be on the back foot. It will be punishing.

“The last few races, I think we are starting to see Lando being a bit quicker consistently.

“That’s probably also why Oscar is starting to overdrive a little bit and why he has maybe been feeling the pressure more than he has done.

“It can be just braking too late, or hustling loads of speed by braking too soft. You are basically trying to find lap time, but you end up costing yourself more lap time or making mistakes by being aggressive with it.

“When he crashed [in qualifying] I think he was slightly up on Lando by being aggressive on the brakes. But then you see the risk around Baku. All these braking zones, they bite. It felt like he was pushing and a little bit of overdriving.”

And Palmer reckons Norris heads to Singapore, a track where he dominated last year, as the favourite.

“I think Norris will be favourite for this one. The momentum is starting to go with him,” he added.

“The gap has come down to 25 points and I think the way Lando is driving, he’s getting more comfortable in the car and he’s getting consistent laps out of it pretty well.”