Oscar Piastri on whether McLaren should back one driver amid Max Verstappen threat

Oscar Piastri believes the F1 title fight with teammate Lando Norris is “far too close” for McLaren to consider backing one driver, despite the growing threat from Max Verstappen.

Piastri endured a difficult weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, finishing a distant fifth.

The Australian’s advantage over Norris in the drivers’ championship has been reduced to 14 points with five rounds to go.

Verstappen, who dominated both the sprint and grand prix, is now 40 points off the lead.

The Dutchman’s stunning run of form has put him back in contention to win this year’s F1 drivers’ championship.

For the majority of the season, it has looked like either Piastri or Norris would emerge as world champion this year.

While Verstappen is a serious threat, Piastri doesn’t think McLaren should prioritise one driver.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Piastri told Sky Sports.

“We’re still so incredibly tight and we both have said we want an opportunity to try and fight for the championship because we deserve it. It’s far too close to start picking one over the other.”

Piastri dismissed suggestions that his weekend fell apart due to a poor qualifying display, after securing sixth on the grid.

He admitted that he simply didn’t have the pace in Austin.

“It is very important wherever you go. I think today, race pace could have saved you but I didn’t really have that either,” Piastri explained.

“It’s something I want to work on obviously. I think qualifying still generally has been consistently good. There’s obviously been highs at certain points. This weekend, apart from Baku, has been the first weekend where it’s been a let down.

“Even if it’s been subpar before, it’s still pretty good. Things to try and understand from this weekend as it wasn’t just related to qualifying.

“I think trying to work out why it didn’t gel with the car this weekend is the first port of call I guess. It was difficult to get into a rhythm at all. That’s been the big difference to other circuits that we’ve been to, even more recently.”

Piastri “hasn’t forgotten how to drive”

Piastri has struggled in recent races.

He crashed out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in what was the worst race of his F1 career to date.

Piastri was overtaken by Norris on the opening lap of the Singapore GP, while in Austin his pace was nowhere - spending most of the race fending off Mercedes’ George Russell.

2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button suggested that the pressure of the title battle may now be affecting Piastri.

“The car’s obviously not working for him either,” Button said.

“He hasn’t forgotten how to drive. That’s the thing. He will be driving around going ‘why can’t I drive this car like my teammate can? Like I did before?’ The pressure builds when things start going wrong and you go in the slightly wrong direction on setup as well.

“It’s difficult to find your way out of that. It’s having the right people around you in that scenario. There’s so much pressure — the most a driver will ever feel fighting for a championship in F1.”