Karun Chandhok believes George Russell is facing similar issues to those Oscar Piastri dealt with last year, particularly on low-grip circuits.
Piastri was up by 34 points with 10 races left in the season but ended up trailing his teammate Lando Norris by 13 points when it was all said and done.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella didn’t put it down to pressure. Instead, he pointed to a more technical reason, explaining that Piastri struggled to drive naturally on slicker tracks like Azerbaijan, Mexico, and Brazil.
Russell draws parallels with Piastri after struggles in Miami
Russell labelled the Miami Grand Prix as one of his weaker venues, and after qualifying four-tenths behind pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli, he told Chandhok on Sky Sports that the car felt like it was on extremely worn tyres.
“I’m quite a smooth, precise driver and that’s always been my style,” he said. “On these tracks, you’ve got to be happy with the car sliding. I like the car on the edge, but this is like you’ve got a set of 200-lap-old tyres on the car, and it’s just sliding, oversteering, understeering.
“That’s the same for everybody. It’s so hot, tyre pressures are high, the grip’s really low, so it doesn’t actually feel that pleasant, whereas you go to tracks like Saudi and the grip’s super high, it feels mega to drive and that’s where I [excel].”
The Sky Sports pundit saw similarities between Russell’s comments and what Piastri experienced during his title battle with Lando Norris.
“It sounds like Oscar and Lando,” Chandhok said. “This is what Oscar was saying: he’s super smooth and struggles at low-grip tracks. At least you know where [the weakness] is.”
Russell has had some legitimate reasons for dropping points in China and Japan earlier this season. But in Miami there was no such excuse – this time he was outperformed without any clear mitigating factors.
Piastri’s struggles become clear in comparison with Norris
Speaking on the F1 Show, Chandhok drew a direct line between Russell and Piastri, highlighting their shared difficulties. “You could have copy and pasted Oscar from Austin, Mexico last year,” he said. “It was basically the same thing. I mean, what happens on these lower grip circuits is you get a lot more lateral movement.
“If you look at that sector from turn four down to turn eight, Kimi was consistently quicker than George in qualifying. That’s where he was making up chunks of time and through that whole section, especially this year, we have to remember the car’s got 30 percent less downforce.
“They are sliding on the top surface of the tyre a bit more. And the drivers are having to manage that movement by balancing their hands and feet, the car is alive and dancing.”
Piastri had outqualified Norris at each of the first three races, but Norris outpaced him by over four-tenths on Saturday. He also got the better of the Australian throughout the Sprint portion of the weekend.
The gap between the two drivers at the chequered flag, with Norris second and Piastri third, was nearly 24 seconds.
“I think George and Oscar were perhaps less comfortable [in Miami],” said Chandhok. “If you look at the gap between Oscar and Lando throughout this weekend, it was massive.”
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