Two F1 legends agree on Oscar Piastri’s championship potential

Damon Hill and Juan Pablo Montoya have both agreed that Oscar Piastri is still world champion material.

They made the call during a discussion on F1TV about the McLaren driver’s sharp decline in form.

Hill said: “We know Oscar is potential, we thought at least, world champion material. He fought for a championship.”

Montoya interjected: “I think he is. I really think he is.”

Piastri led the world championship by 34 points with nine races to go in the 2025 season.

He lost form during the run-in and finished 13 points behind teammate Lando Norris.

That was seen as part of his development curve in only his third F1 season.

But his 2026 season has raised deeper questions about his ultimate ceiling.

Piastri maintained a steep improvement curve in his first three F1 seasons.

His contribution to McLaren’s total points went from 32.1% in 2023 to 43.9% in 2024 to 49.2% in 2025.

McLaren believed Piastri had more potential than Norris.

But this season, his points share has dropped to 39.5%.

Hill said on F1TV after Piastri’s Q2 exit in Mexico: “I have no idea what’s going wrong with him.”

That Q2 exit was Piastri’s first in two years.

Hill added: “It’s very frustrating for the driver. If they don’t know, it tells you that there’s something unique about the way you have to drive these cars.”

He said: “It’s a regulation change, and he’s never found his feet really, Oscar, has he, all year long?”

Hill noted that George Russell has had similar struggles adapting to the 2026 cars.

Russell has been thumped by Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli in the title race.

Hill argued that only Russell has suffered more reputational damage this season than Piastri.

Piastri’s weekend in Mexico went from bad to worse.

He took a 10-second penalty for colliding with Arvid Lindblad at the Turn 1-2 complex.

Piastri hung his McLaren around the outside of Lindblad into Turn 1.

His intent was to gain the inside line for the immediate approach of Turn 2.

Both drivers held their lines.

Lindblad’s rear-left wheel made contact with Piastri’s front right.

The contact sprung the Racing Bulls car into the air, into the exit wall and out of the race.

The penalty cost Piastri seventh place.

He was classified in 13th place after the field bunched up under the safety car.

Piastri accepted the penalty based on the FIA’s driving standards guidelines.

But he suggested those guidelines might need tweaking for the Mexican opening complex.

The FIA guidelines state that a driver on the inside must have its front axle level with the mirrors of the car in front to earn racing room at the apex.

An outside line move mandates that the attacking driver must have their front axle level with that of the defending car.

Piastri said: “I think looking at the guidelines, it’s kind of hard to argue against the penalty.”

He added: “But I think that set of corners in Mexico, that’s where the guidelines are very tricky to enforce.”

He said: “Every corner’s slightly different, every sequence of corners especially, and yeah it kind of feels like when your only option to avoid an incident is to cut the track, you’re not left in a great place.”

He called it a difficult one.

Piastri said: “I think Arvid was very robust. I think if you look at the guidelines he had the right to defend, I think also for myself I had the right to try and make that move stick until the point where I tried to back out which is when we collided.”