‘I’ve still got what it takes’ - Oscar Piastri hits back at F1 title critics

Oscar Piastri has emphatically responded to people doubting his F1 world championship credentials.

The Australian lost the lead of the world championship for the first time since April as McLaren teammate Lando Norris claimed a dominant victory at the Mexico City Grand Prix, while Piastri could only take fifth.

A torrid run of form has seen Piastri go from enjoying a 34-point cushion over Norris following his seventh win of the year at the Dutch Grand Prix, to being one point behind his main rival five races later.

Norris and Piastri are battling for their first world championship, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is just 36 points behind and ensuring it remains a three-way title fight with four rounds to go.

Several F1 onlookers have questioned Piastri amid his recent struggles, with 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve claiming the former points leader has suffered a “total collapse” under the increasing pressure.

“People can think what they want to think right?” Piastri stated ahead of this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix. “For me I know that I’ve still got what it takes to win the championship.

“Yeah, there’s been some bumps along the road but there’s been bumps along the road for everyone this year at different points.

“I’m confident that I’ve learnt a lot of helpful things from the last couple of weekends in particular, and I’m confident as well that I can still perform at some of the heights of the success we’ve had this year.

“There’s still a lot of laps to go this year and I’m very confident I can still win.”

Piastri taken key learnings from Austin and Mexico

Piastri said lessons learned during two tricky weekends across the recent North American double-header have been important for him.

After the last race, Piastri revealed he needed to drive in a manner that he finds “not natural” in Mexico City.

“I think Austin and Mexico have been two races that have been different to a lot of others,” Piastri explained.

“There’s been some tougher weekends, some were execution errors on my part, some of them were maybe not getting the most out of the car as a team.

“Austin and Mexico I think there were some things that were clearly requiring some very different driving for whatever reason that is.

“I think those two are similar, but I don’t think any of the races before that were bad or catastrophic. There were some mistakes here and there but I’ve think learning from the last two weekends has been important.”