Oscar Piastri accused of 'cramping up under expectation'

Oscar Piastri has been accused of "cramping up" as the finishing line draws near in the fight for this season F1 drivers' title.

Following the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of September, Piastri tightened his grip on the championship battle with his seventh victory of the year, whilst his nearest challenger in McLaren team-mate Lando Norris suffered his first retirement of the campaign.

The win, in tandem with the technical failure for Norris, allowed Piastri to open up a 34-point cushion over the Briton. Although Max Verstappen finished second, a gap of 104 points to the Australian appeared unbridgeable given McLaren's dominance at that time.

Fast forward four races and seven weeks later, and the title picture has changed dramatically. Norris is just 14 points adrift, but a dramatic charge from Verstappen means he has sliced into Piastri's advantage by 64 points and is just 40 behind.

For Piastri, two crashes in Azerbaijan was followed by a minor collision with Norris in Singapore, one that angered the 24-year-old, who voiced his frustration over the team radio, before another crash with Norris in the United States sprint on Saturday that took out both cars.

Assessing the title picture, speaking to RacingNews365, Damon Hill, the 1996 champion, said: "I think Lando shedded the load a little because it looked like Oscar had it in the bag.

"Lando had to mentally consider the strong possibility that he wasn't going to win it, whereas Oscar now seems to be the one sweating a little, cramping up a little under the expectation.

"Neither has won a world championship, and when you lie in bed at night and think about the possibility of becoming a world champion, it does play on your mind."

From a position of seemingly indomitable strength, and after clinching the constructors' championship for the second successive year, on this occasion with six races to spare, McLaren is staring at the prospect that neither of its drivers could win the title.

Suggested to Hill that such a scenario seemed inconceivable just a few weeks ago, he replied: "You've just said it, you've actually raised the spectre of what could happen.

"McLaren will be going, 'Guys, we've got a slight problem, because we might not win the drivers' championship, and we'd really like to do so'.

"They haven't come first and second since 1989, but now that achievement is starting to look a bit vulnerable.

"You do have to always factor in the improbable in this sport because it bloody happens."