Oscar Piastri’s performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was ‘terrible’. That’s according to former McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who fears for the Australian’s state of mind.
Piastri made three completely uncharacteristic errors in the space of two laps at the Baku City Circuit, 24 hours apart. The first saw him end qualifying in the wall.
Starting from ninth, he dropped to the back of the field after moving too early, which earned him an inconsequential five-second penalty. And as he tried to regain ground, he ploughed into the barriers at turn six.
With teammate and title rival Lando Norris only able to finish sixth, Piastri’s lead remains at 25 points. But his first major errors of the 2025 season raise concerns ahead of the final seven races.
Oscar Piastri is now feeling the pressure of F1 title fight, Juan Pablo Montoya says
Speaking in August, Montoya said Piastri was getting ‘heated’. He was apparently starting to realise that this could be his only chance to win a title, such is the unpredictable nature of F1.
And prior to the Azerbaijan GP, Montoya said a ‘black cloud’ was hanging over Piastri due to McLaren’s controversial team orders at Monza.
Thus, he wasn’t as surprised as the rest of the F1 world by the errors last weekend. Piastri has been compared to Kimi Raikkonen, nicknamed ‘The Iceman’ because he was impervious to pressure.
While he had been virtually faultless across the first 16 races, wet-weather spin in Australia aside, Montoya has seen a change in Piastri as the enormity of what’s at stake dawns on him.
“Piastri lost his temper. I’ve been telling you, ‘Wait and see’, and it was noticeable. For a while, when he was under direct pressure from Lando regarding the points, he was still performing well.
“You’re in a difficult position. Even if he says he’s changed nothing, why did he crash twice? The race was terrible. Qualifying, come on, [there were] difficult conditions.
“The race, the first lap, skipping the start and not getting the penalty for the next race is shameless.
“Apart from the fact he jumped the start, the start was terrible. From there, I think he felt comfortable that he was going to pass a lot of people very quickly.
“He calculated the braking based on the people around him, and the problem is that the people around him braked quite late. If you look, he brakes a little later, then it went bang. Welcome to a street circuit.”
Juan Pablo Montoya tells Oscar Piastri to target second place at the Singapore Grand Prix
Montoya says next weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix comes at the worst time for Piastri. It’s one of the most punishing circuits on the calendar, and also a strong track for Norris.
Norris has beaten Piastri in all four competitive sessions at the Marina Bay track and finished over 40 seconds clear of his McLaren teammate last year, having outpaced him by four-tenths in qualifying.
For Montoya, Piastri is risking a crash if he goes all-out to beat the Briton, and another accident could wipe out his 25-point lead entirely. Thus, he’s been urged to target second or third and stabilise his season.
“The mental problem for me is more complicated now, because you’re going to another street circuit, which is a track where Lando has had better results than anyone else,” Montoya explained. “It’s 100% a Lando track.
“You’re not in a position to attack Lando, because if you make another mistake, you’re going to create a world of unnecessary headaches. If you beat Lando, great, but if you crash again and Lando wins, it becomes complicated again because the points swing can be very large.
“That’s the reality of these championships. He has a very large advantage, but as we’ve seen, the points swing can happen in a week.
“I think what he has to do, in my opinion, is go and finish second, third, not crash, not make mistakes and start creating that stability. Because another crash at this moment…”