Johnny Herbert believes Oscar Piastri is starting to show “tiny cracks” in his armoury amid the pressure of an F1 title race.
Australian racer Piastri, known for his cool-headedness, voiced his anger over team radio at his McLaren team after teammate and title rival Lando Norris collided with him in the process of a first-lap overtake at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.
Piastri labelled the move “unfair” and was furious when race engineer Tom Stallard informed his driver that McLaren would not intervene or force Norris to give the place back. Norris ended up finishing third, with Piastri in fourth.
With six races left, Piastri still has a 22-point lead over the Briton and 63-point gap over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, but ex-F1 driver Herbert says the Australian is showing signs of the “pressure building.”
“We're seeing those little, tiny pressure cracks from Oscar from all his comments,” three-time grand prix winner Herbert said.
“The cool Oscar Piastri that everyone was talking about at the beginning of the season is not there.
“The pressure's building and when that pressure pot builds in a championship battle, it's the one who has that stronger mentality, to try and get rid of that negative Singapore result for Oscar, but then have the positivity going into the next race.
“It wasn't the perfect result for Lando, but he was ahead of Oscar. It's come down to 22 points. So, he's piling the pressure on Oscar, but he's doing a great job as well. He's showing his speed once again and they're both very, close anyway.”
With McLaren wrapping up the constructors’ title in Singapore, Herbert believes the papaya-clad team should now let their drivers race all out for the drivers’ championship.
“This is really where they [Piastri and Norris] all show their inner strengths and mental strengths as well,” Herbert said, in association with Betting Lounge. “The key to this is McLaren letting them race because they won the Constructors’ for a second year running which was very impressive, now it's letting their drivers go.
The next race is the United States Grand Prix (17-19 October) in Austin, Texas.
