The world of Formula 1 moves at a blistering, unforgiving pace. One moment, you are the sport’s golden boy, the anointed champion-in-waiting, leading the standings with a swagger that seems unbreakable. The next, you are standing in the middle of a garage, the engine’s ticking sound echoing in your helmet, watching your rival celebrate as a much darker, colder feeling creeps in: doubt.

For Oscar Piastri, the 2025 United States Grand Prix was that moment. The lights went out in Austin, and with them, the aura of invincibility that had surrounded the young McLaren driver all season.

What was supposed to be another step toward coronation became a public unravelling. A disastrous sprint race crash, a car that felt alien beneath him, and a lowly fifth-place finish while his rivals stood on the podium. This wasn’t just a bad weekend; it was a psychological earthquake that has shaken the entire championship to its core. Piastri, the man who led the 2025 championship with such confidence, is now watching his lead, his form, and perhaps his mental fortitude spin terrifyingly out of control.

The scoreboard tells a story more brutal than any television replay. Just four races ago, Piastri held a colossal 104-point lead over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. He was untouchable. His teammate, Lando Norris, was a distant 34 points behind. It was Piastri’s title to lose.

Today, that lead is a distant memory. After Austin, Piastri’s advantage over Norris has been sliced to a mere 14 points. Verstappen, the relentless four-time champion, is now looming just 40 points back. The slip isn’t just startling; it’s a freefall. The man who won four of the first six races and looked surgically calm under pressure has seen his momentum not just stop, but violently reverse.

“This weekend has been quite different to the previous couple,” Piastri admitted, his words projecting a calm he clearly didn’t feel. “Baku was obviously a bit of a disaster, Singapore was what it was. So I think this weekend has been kind of the odd one out… it wasn’t the weekend he wanted or expected.”

But those in the paddock know that in a title fight, there are no “odd ones out.” Every race is a data point, and the current trend line for Piastri is pointing sharply downward.

The pressure cracks are visible to everyone, including his own team. McLaren Racing CEO, Zak Brown, is known for his unwavering support of his drivers, but even he couldn’t sugarcoat the situation. “Glad to have the weekend behind us. Oscar struggled a bit all weekend,” Brown stated bluntly. “This wasn’t a great weekend for him. He just never really felt comfortable or he had the car underneath him that he wanted, so just a little bit off all weekend.”

In Formula 1, “a little bit off” is the stuff of nightmares. It’s a canyon-sized gap when your rivals are performing at their peak. Brown’s praise for Red Bull and Verstappen only twisted the knife. “Max is an awesome driver and they’ve got a lot of momentum. We need to break that momentum now.”

But how? How do you break the momentum of a charging bull like Max Verstappen, who has found a new gear since Red Bull’s recent upgrades? How do you halt the rising confidence of your own teammate, Lando Norris, who is now consistently out-qualifying and out-racing you?

This is no longer just a battle of engineering or pace. It has transformed into a brutal psychological endurance test.

Perhaps no one understands this better than former World Champion Jenson Button. Watching from the sidelines, Button saw much more than a driver having a bad day. He saw a man grappling with the immense, crushing weight of a World Championship fight.

“Yeah, it’s a very tricky situation that he finds himself in,” Button analyzed. “The car isn’t performing as he would have hoped. Now you’re slightly on the back foot with the car, and personally, you’re thinking about the World Championship. I will say I’m the first person who made too many mistakes when I was fighting for my world championship, and I put myself under too much pressure.”

Button’s words cut to the heart of the crisis. He warned that the moment a driver starts thinking about not losing points, they stop racing to win. That’s when the mistakes happen.

“Confidence is with Lando,” Button continued, “and the negativity is more with Oscar, which we never thought would happen with Oscar… but it happens. We’re all human.”

That humanity is what’s on full display. Piastri, the prodigy who stormed through the junior ranks of F3 and F2, is facing his first true professional crisis. And his rivals smell blood. Max Verstappen is doing what he does best: pouncing late in the season. Since the summer break, the Dutchman has been untouchable, winning in Italy, Azerbaijan, and now the US. He is a relentless war machine, a four-time champion who knows exactly how to hunt down a leader and break them.

Worse still for Piastri, the other threat is coming from inside his own garage. Lando Norris is finding his groove, and in Austin, he was demonstrably faster. “From the word go, he’s had 3/10ths on Oscar,” Button noted. That margin was everything. Norris finished second, maximizing his points, while Piastri was left in fifth, battling a car he couldn’t trust.

This creates a dangerous new dynamic for McLaren. Until now, they have admirably treated both drivers equally. “We are still so incredibly tight, and we’ve both said we wanted an opportunity to try and fight for the championship because we deserve it,” Piastri insisted.

But can McLaren, a team desperate to win its first driver’s title in years, afford to remain neutral? Red Bull has no such confusion. Verstappen is their man. As the gap closes, the pressure will mount on McLaren to pick a side. If Norris continues to outperform Piastri, the team environment could shift, leaving Piastri not just fighting his rivals, but fighting for support within his own camp.

For his part, Piastri is leaning on the only thing he has left: his belief in himself. He publicly dismisses the threat of Verstappen—”Not necessarily. He’s obviously there and he’s quick. But for me, the biggest focus is just trying to work out why this weekend was tough”—but his words feel like a defense mechanism.

“I still fully believe that I can win the championship,” he told reporters, referencing his past glories. “Champions at junior levels,” he noted, “became champions because they handled moments like this.”

That belief is now being put to the ultimate test. Belief only works when the lap times back it up. With five rounds remaining—Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Abu Dhabi—the margin for error is gone. Over 160 points are still on the table. Statistically, Oscar Piastri is still in control. He still leads the championship.

But emotionally, that grip is loosening. Lando Norris is growing louder in his mirrors. Max Verstappen is no longer a dot in the distance but a grinning shark in the rear view. The paddock is whispering. The fans are watching. And everyone is asking the same question: Is this just a stumble, or is the pressure finally too much?

F1 doesn’t give second chances. It gives you five red lights, one shot, and the difference between champion and runner-up is forged in these exact moments of maximum pressure. The bad news for Oscar Piastri is that his comfortable cushion is gone. The good news? The story isn’t finished yet.