Jenson Button’s advice for Oscar Piastri after feeling the pressure in his own F1 title win

Jenson Button has used his own experience of fighting for a F1 world championship to explain Oscar Piastri’s recent struggles.

Piastri finished fifth at the Circuit of the Americas, well behind title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

The Australian lacked pace all weekend, with his championship advantage now reduced to just 14 points with five rounds to go.

Button ultimately beat Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello to the title in 2009.

After winning six of the first seven races, Button didn’t win again that year.

By his own admission, Button struggled with the pressure of the F1 title race - and can relate to how Piastri is feeling.

“Yeah, it’s a very tricky situation that he finds himself in. The car isn’t performing as he would have hoped, and as it was at the start of the year,” Button said on Sky Sports.

“It was so strong, they were unbeatable. Now, you’re slightly on the back foot with the car, and personally, you’re thinking about the world championship.

“So, you’re thinking about not losing points in certain races, not making mistakes, and that’s sometimes when mistakes happen.

“I will say, I’m the first person who made too many mistakes when I was fighting for my world championship in the end, and I put myself under too much pressure, and I didn’t handle that very well.

“But hopefully Oscar has learnt from other people’s failures, he’s got Mark Webber looking after him, who’s been through difficult times and keeping him positive in this scenario.”

“Confidence” with Norris

With Norris reducing Piastri’s lead to 14 points, Button has noticed an increase in “confidence” for the British driver.

Button added: “I think so, he seems very positive in the last couple of races.

“Obviously, the incident in Singapore wasn’t good; you never want to touch your teammate in a racing scenario.

“He seems confident in himself, and from the word go, he’s had three-tenths on Oscar and it’s continued throughout the whole of the weekend.

“If he’s able to come out on top here, it’s a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season, and it’s more difficult then for Oscar as well.

“You guys go in completely different directions, so the confidence is with Lando, and the negativity is more with Oscar, which we never thought would happen with Oscar!

“But it happens, we’re all human. It’s sport — mentally, this sport is so tough.”