Oscar Piastri is fighting an extreme uphill battle in the Drivers’ Championship title fight.

Oscar Piastri is falling away in the F1 title race (Image: Getty)

Mark Webber has pledged to ‘get Oscar Piastri turned around’ after the Australian racer’s woes continued at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old is now hanging on by his fingernails in the Drivers’ Championship title fight following the toughest run of form in his young F1 career.

Piastri has been out-scored by both Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in each of the last six Grand Prix weekends. This miserable run of form has flipped his season on its head, turning a 34-point World Championship advantage into a 24-point deficit with three races remaining.

While a maiden F1 title isn’t out of the question, Piastri will need an extreme turnaround throughout the upcoming triple-header, and following a messy Brazilian GP weekend that produced a sprint race DNF and a fifth-place finish on Sunday, that currently looks unlikely.

“We’ll get him turned around,” Webber told Channel 4 at the Brazilian GP. “I don’t think he’s low on motivation, put it that way. He’s had a tough run, but this is about character, fighting those deep motivations that you need at this point to come back, and this is his third year in F1, so he needs to find that character to fight back.”

Webber made sure to emphasise the dramatic steps that Piastri has taken since joining McLaren’s F1 operation. The Australian arrived on the grid just three years ago after winning the Formula Regional European Championship, Formula Three and Formula Two titles in successive seasons.

Mark Webber will talk to his driver ahead of the triple header (Image: Getty)

“Of course, it’s a journey for him,” Webber continued. “Obviously, it’s been an incredible journey so early in his career to be fighting for a world title. Year three is pretty unprecedented. I think it was Lewis; there haven’t been many people who have done this so early in their career.

“So, naturally, that’s in the equation, of course, to understand the boundaries of how that can look for him, without putting too much pressure on the situation. And also, when I went for my championship, I was an old dog.

“I was really old, at the end of my career; he’s early in his career. So, there are different nuances there, a bit of everything. An arm around him, encouragement here and there, opportunities, you can see his pecker’s up, he’s working hard, and it’s early in his career.”

Piastri’s unenviable task is being made even harder by the form of team-mate Norris, too. The Brit scored his second successive Grand Prix win on Sunday, completing a clean sweep in Brazil comprising two pole positions and two P1 finishes.