{"id":37979,"date":"2025-11-20T13:36:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=37979"},"modified":"2025-11-20T13:41:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:41:31","slug":"verstappen-on-piastris-decline-i-dont-know-how-this-is-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/11\/20\/verstappen-on-piastris-decline-i-dont-know-how-this-is-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen on Piastri’s decline: “I don’t know how this is possible”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the space of a few months, the F1 2025 Championship has taken a surprise turn. The first shock was the emergence of Max Verstappen<\/a> as an outside contender, following his electric form after the summer break.<\/p>\n

Verstappen managed to put himself in a title conversation which – in fairness to the Dutchman – he insisted was beyond his RB21.<\/p>\n

In parallel to this has been Oscar Piastri’s poor form<\/a>, with the Australian failing to win a race since Zandvoort. Piastri now finds himself 24 points behind Norris in the standings, something hardly anyone anticipated after he created a 30+ point gap.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Las Vegas GP, Verstappen admitted he is perplexed at the turn of fortunes at McLaren.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Max Verstappe in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Peter Fox\/Getty Images) \/\/ Getty Images \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Max Verstappen perplexed by Piastri’s recent struggles<\/h2>\n

When Lando Norris<\/a> retired from the Dutch GP with a mechanical failure, the consensus was that this year’s Championship was Piastri’s to lose.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it seems the 24-year-old subscribed to this theory. When ordered to let Norris past at the Italian GP – something hardly ever asked of a driver in a title race, even against their teammate – Piastri followed McLaren’s instructions.<\/p>\n

He explained his rationale post-race. Piastri explained that he didn’t deserve to finish ahead of Norris in Monza, based on his pace throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

The Australian outlined that his priority was to ensure in the next race, he would be ahead of his teammate and therefore avoid a similar situation. At the time, this logic seemed solid – given his performance until that point in the season.<\/p>\n

However, Piastri might regret giving away those points and accepting team orders<\/a>. In the races since Monza, the #81 car has struggled to match the pace of Lando Norris’ #4.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview, Max Verstappen admitted his surprise at Piastri’s drop in speed.<\/p>\n

“I have no explanation for that to be honest. I find it very bizarre. I didn\u2019t expect it to go like this, although at the end of the day it\u2019s not really my problem…<\/em><\/p>\n

“Honestly, I also don\u2019t know how this is possible,” <\/em>he told Autosport<\/a> when discussing Piastri’s form.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t know what has happened, or what hasn\u2019t happened. So it\u2019s difficult for me to judge.<\/em><\/p>\n

“But I would probably have been a bit more annoyed, I think – when you\u2019re that far ahead, and suddenly that far behind.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Max Verstappen in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Clive Rose\/Getty Images) \/\/ Getty Images \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No room for mistakes in Las Vegas<\/h4>\n

With just three rounds to go, Lando Norris is in a very strong position. He has outscored Piastri by almost 60 points since his Zandvoort DNF<\/a>, a truly impressive feat – and potentially title-defining one.<\/p>\n

Piastri needs to be be perfect to overturn his 24-point deficit to Norris, and also needs some luck. Even if he wins the remaining Grand Prix and Sprints, Norris can secure the crown by finishing in second.<\/p>\n

This means that Max Verstappen, or another driver, needs to finish ahead of Norris to realise the Australian’s title hopes.<\/p>\n

Of course, recent form suggests a scenario where both these things happen is unlikely. Then again, the upcoming Vegas GP could easily spring more surprises in the Championship battle.<\/p>\n

Main photo: Zak Mauger\/LAT Images (Red Bull Content Pool)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the space of a few months, the F1 2025 Championship has taken a surprise turn. The first shock was the emergence of Max Verstappen as an outside contender, following his electric form after the summer break. Verstappen managed to put himself in a title conversation which – in fairness to the Dutchman – he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":37980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,79,2579,1569,78],"class_list":["post-37979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mclaren-racing","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-red-bull-racing"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37979"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37992,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37979\/revisions\/37992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}