Mark Hughes: Can Piastri cling on to title like Button did in 2009?

Oscar Piastri was strangely off the pace in Austin last weekend. Although team-mate Lando Norris had to give best to Max Verstappen, he was at least able to set competitive lap times to the Red Bull in the few laps in which he was not stuck behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. Piastri, by contrast, was nowhere near such pace, regularly half-a-second or more slower on his way to an unremarkable fifth place.

He just never found his rhythm, he explained afterwards. He struggled at the same track last year too. The Circuit of the Americas induces a very unusual tyre behaviour, one requiring a counter-intuitive approach from the drivers. Such are the stresses imposed on the rubber through the high-speed esses, the long parabola of Turns 15-16-17-18, and the slow acceleration zones out of the tight corners, the tyres almost immediately become heat-soaked through to the carcass and don’t get time to recover. Four laps and they are overheating, regardless of how they are nursed. This would apply even if you two-stopped – and so the extra 21sec loss would never be recovered. Hence everyone was intending to run a one-stop. Everyone also then found that their cars to be gripless handfuls, something exacerbated by the gusting winds.

Piastri just did not seem to gel with the car like this. The top three – Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc – were having regular wayward moments, as were many others through the field. By contrast Piastri seemed to be driving behind the tyre, trying not to over-stress the rubber. Normally, this would be exactly how to meet the challenge of a high-deg tyre. But around here, it wasn’t the way. The tyres were going to be too hot regardless.

While it’s tempting to see a title battle just from the psychological perspective, of how the contenders are handling the pressure, it’s never just that. There are always physical, technical factors driving the events too. For example, Vettel didn’t start winning in the second half of ’09 just because Button was feeling the pressure. From Silverstone – ie the next race after Button’s sixth victory – Red Bull had fitted its car with its new double diffuser. It was from that point onwards the fastest car on the grid. Similarly, Verstappen isn’t suddenly winning because of Piastri’s troubles; the RB21 Red Bull has been aggressively updated since the summer break, with a front wing and floor combination which has transformed the car.

With such a car under him, Verstappen’s rampage is certainly adding a fascinating new dimension to the contest. But it would be foolhardy to count out Piastri from bouncing back.