Jacques Villeneuve believes that Oscar Piastri’s slump in the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship may have been the result of one thing: complacency.
The 1997 world champion says the Australian’s focus over the summer on just his McLaren teammate left him unprepared for a late-season challenge from Lando Norris, and much less from Max Verstappen.
Piastri had led the standings for 15 consecutive rounds, with a 34-point advantage over Norris and a 104-point gap to Max Verstappen after his win in the Dutch Grand Prix last August.
But a string of podium-less finishes, including in Mexico last time out, allowed Norris to snatch the championship lead by a single point, with Verstappen close behind.
Complacency in the Midfield?
Villeneuve suggests Piastri’s dominance early in the season may have lulled him into a false sense of security, particularly given his only real championship rival was his own teammate.
“You see it in every sport,” Villeneuve told Sky Sports’ F1 Show podcast. “You have teams that will have an average season. You get closer and closer to the finals, to the playoffs, and suddenly, they're the best team out there.
“Why, for what reason? They were average all season. And teams that have been winning every game, they collapse at that. It happens all the time.
©McLaren
“We didn't have an extremely fantastic Lando early in the season. Not the Lando we had at the end of last year. And we kept saying, ‘Oh, that's because, you know, Piastri has stepped up. He's now on Lando's pace, and even quicker.’
“But was it actually Piastri stepping up, or Lando that just wasn't on it? He kept saying he wasn't very comfortable with the car. And maybe that made Piastri complacent a bit.
“When all you have to fight is your team-mate, maybe you don't push to that last limit, that last tenth of a second.”
When Your Teammate Levels Up
According to Villeneuve, Piastri’s challenges began once Norris found his rhythm and Verstappen started dominating. The Australian, Villeneuve argues, didn’t adapt quickly enough to the new pressure.
“Suddenly, we get Baku, and we get Max that's winning everything,” continued the 1997 F1 world champion. “And Lando stepped up. Lando is driving faster and better than he's been all season. And Piastri is not stepping up. He was already at his limit.
“And when you do that, when you have to go that extra two tenths, suddenly you find problems in the cars that did not exist. You know, when you drive within the limit, the car's perfect. It's easy, you drive, you save your tires.
“And suddenly, you have to go a couple of tenths faster. You can't drive the car anymore. Everything is wrong, you don't know why, because right now, we have the same car.
Little Change to McLaren’s Package
The McLaren MCL39 hasn’t changed dramatically, Villeneuve notes, nor have the Pirelli tyres
“It hasn't evolved that much, so there's no reason for it to be driven differently,” explained the Canadian. “Same tyres, it's Pirellis. They don't change. Sometimes, they're softer, sometimes, they're not. The track is warmer, and so on. But there isn't that big of a difference.
“So it just takes your team-mate to step up a little bit, and you're realising, ‘Oh, how do I do that?’ And suddenly, nothing works. It gets in your head, and you just get slower and slower and slower, and you start inventing set-ups that don't exist. You start doubting your way of driving.
“You look at the data, and you say, ‘Oh, my team-mate is one tenth quicker in that corner, I need to drive differently’, and that's when it goes wrong. You have to remember what you were doing that was good and just step up a little bit.”
Villeneuve’s analysis paints a picture of a young driver who dominated under one set of circumstances but struggled when the competitive pressure increased.
As the championship heads into its final races, Piastri faces a critical test. Can he shake off the mental fog and reclaim his edge, or will Norris – and perhaps Verstappen – run away with the title?
Villeneuve’s words are a wake-up call: complacency has no place in the fight for Formula 1 glory.
Read also:
Zak Brown: McLaren shutting out ‘external noise’ in title showdown
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