Max Verstappen has shared his bewilderment at Oscar Piastri's "very bizarre" loss of form in the second part of the F1 season.
The Australian driver looked well on course to clinch his first F1 drivers' championship after kicking off the post-summer break stretch with victory at the Dutch Grand Prix.
That triumph, coupled with Lando Norris retiring at Zandvoort, landed the 24-year-old a 34-point advantage, but a 58-point swing between the McLaren drivers over the past six rounds has left Piastri reeling.
Now, with only three grands prix — and one sprint — remaining, he must recapture the level of performance he displayed across the opening part of the campaign to stand any chance of overcoming his team-mate.
Verstappen, who has been able to propel himself back into — albeit distant — contention as a result of Piastri's wayward form, was unable to explain Piastri's sudden misfortune.
Reflecting on how McLaren has "made a few mistakes after the summer break or had a crash", the four-time F1 drivers' champion admitted his surprise at how things have transpired, and why Piastri has suffered a dip in results.
"I have no explanation for that to be honest," the Red Bull driver told Dutch media, including RacingNews365. "I find it very bizarre.
"I didn’t expect it to go like this, although at the end of the day it’s not really my problem."
Now 49 points adrift of Norris in the title fight, Verstappen needs the British driver to befall a similar fate to Piastri.
When it was highlighted that the nine-time grand prix winner did not forget how to drive, the Dutchman added: "No, I don’t think so. But honestly, I also don’t know how this is possible."
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Operational differences
Verstappen's father, Jos, who raced in F1 during the 1990s and early 2000s, recently said if he were in Piastri and manager Mark Webber's position, he would put his "foot down internally" at McLaren to get answers.
His son conceded he would not handle the situation in the way the Australian duo appears to have at the Woking-based squad.
"No, but I think that has to do with how they operate as a team as well," the 28-year-old explained. "That’s not how I operate.
"But that’s fine, everyone does their own thing. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I am a bit different in that regard.
"I don’t know what has happened or what hasn’t happened, so it’s difficult for me to judge. But I would probably have been a bit more annoyed, I think, when you’re that far ahead and suddenly that far behind."
A prime example of McLaren handling adversity differently from Red Bull is its response to Piastri being awarded a 10-second time penalty during the recent São Paulo Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc, who was the collateral damage in Piastri's incident with Kimi Antonelli, argued against any punishment, and Carlos Sainz has since labelled it "unacceptable".
Whilst Verstappen is unsure why the constructors' champions managed the setback, which likely cost Piastri second place and a further eight points, he was quick to point out that getting "angry" about it would not have altered the outcome.
"Yeah, I don’t know why they handled it like that," the 68-time grand prix winner said. "In the end, you can be angry about it, but the penalty will still stand anyway.
"You just have to live with it. If you have a problem with that, then you need to contact the stewards or the FIA, and maybe you can talk about it for the future."
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