All eyes will be on Lando Norris heading into Turn 1, with the British driver in a unique position to retake the Championship leader. Only a few months after his catastrophic mechanical failure in Zandvoort, Norris has the chance to re-take the initiative.
On the opposite side of the garage, Oscar Piastri has watched his advantage in the standings slowly evaporate.
Aside from his unforced errors in Baku and incident with Norris in Singapore, the Australian driver has encountered another more pressing issue in recent weeks – a fundamental lack of pace.
Stella points to areas where Oscar Piastri must improve
Only in the last seven days has a lack of performance been a major limiting factor for Oscar Piastri. Previously, it was the small margins that made the difference when the McLaren pair fought for victory.
With a six-tenth gap to Norris in Mexico qualifying, however, this is no longer the ace.
Piastri is uncharacteristically off the pace, unable to match his teammate in short or long runs. Unless this trend quickly reverses, the 24-year-old could see this year’s Championship slipping through his fingers.
In this context, there will be intense work behind the scenes to determine why the Australian is struggling so much. Piastri certainly doesn’t seem convinced his lap-times warrant such major losses to his teammate.
Speaking to Sky Sports after yesterday’s results, Andrea Stella outlined what he believes is Piastri’s limiting factor:
“Obviously there’s a little bit to review on Oscar’s side. More difficult for him to use the car when the conditions are so sliding, in a way like it was also in Austin. So something we need to review and make sure we look at for tomorrow.
“Like I said before, Oscar in relation to Lando loses a few milliseconds pretty much in every corner.
“So it’s more him getting the right feeling with these conditions and pushing that little bit more in every single corner.
“But obviously, here, it’s very difficult to go that little bit more without having an issue. So something definitely that we can work on and improve for tomorrow.
“I think the race pace is good for both drivers, I’m sure Oscar will be able to recover some positions.”
McLaren take positives and negatives from Mexico qualifying
After Max Verstappen’s commanding victory in COTA, Andrea Stella emphasised that McLaren should be measured in their response to Red Bull’s resurgence.
The Italian argued that a failure to optimise the MCL39, rather than lack of underlying pace, was the team’s main issue. Given the margin of Lando Norris’ Pole Position in Mexico, this hypothesis seems to have solid grounds.
At the same time, McLaren are not dominating sessions with 1-2 finishes as they did previously. Piastri is visibly struggling, increasingly finding himself in brawls with the Mercedes and Ferrari’s for the top 5.
Because of this, Red Bull and Verstappen will keep some optimism about their Championship hopes. As long as at least one McLaren is off the pace, there will be a chance for the RB21 to pick up the pieces and stay within touching distance in the standings.
With only five races left this year, Piastri will be eager to find solutions to his slump as soon as possible.
Main photo: James Sutton/LAT Images (McLaren media gallery)
