Oscar Piastri 'already at his limit' and gets grim title update from F1 champion

Oscar Piastri is 'already at his limit' in terms of pace and performance, according to 1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve. The Australian trails team-mate Lando Norris by one point heading into the final four rounds of the season after a miserable run of form.

Piastri clinched his seventh Grand Prix victory of the year at the Dutch Grand Prix after the summer break, stretching his World Championship advantage to 34 points over Norris. However, since then, his form has nosedived. The 24-year-old has been outscored by his team-mate and Max Verstappen in each of the last five race weekends.

The tail-off was as unexpected as it was unexplainable, and Andrea Stella has already confirmed that there are no significant issues with the MCL38 he is piloting. Instead, Piastri suggested in Austin that adjustments to his driving style were needed for him to return to his former level.

Villeneuve, however, has a more concerning outlook. "We didn't have an extremely fantastic Lando early in the season, not the Lando we had at the end of last year," he said on Sky Sports' The F1 Show.

"And we kept saying, 'Oh, that's because Piastri has stepped up, he's now on Lando's pace and even quicker.' But was it actually Piastri stepping up or Lando that just wasn't on it? He kept saying he wasn't very comfortable with the car. And maybe that made Piastri complacent a bit.

"When all you have to fight is your team-mate, maybe you don't push to that last limit, that last tenth of a second. Suddenly, we get Baku, and we get Max winning everything. And Lando stepped up.

"Lando is driving faster and better than he's been all season. Piastri is not stepping up. He was already at his limit. And when you do that, when you have to go that extra two-tenths, and suddenly, you find problems in the cars that did not exist."

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While recent results have been concerning, Piastri has maintained his calm persona, opting not to panic in the face of his crumbling World Championship hopes. Ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, the Melbourne-born racer plans to analyse driving style shifts that he trialled in Mexico City last time out.

"I think that's been a little bit strange to get my head around because I've been driving exactly the same as I have all year," he explained. "It's just that these last couple of weekends, the car or the tyres or something has required quite a different way of driving.

"And I've just not really gone to that. I tried a few things [in Mexico], trying to change things up a bit today, and once we analyse if it's effective or not, that'll hopefully help see some progress."