Stella summed it up as Norris excelling in low grip, Piastri in high grip. Stella said he believes the answer lies in Piastri's driving technique, which has generally been extremely successful but has not proved entirely suited to the sliding and low-grip conditions both at Austin and in Mexico. While Norris, more in tune with those demands but who has had his troubles elsewhere, proved the McLaren was the class of the field over a single lap, for Piastri it was more difficult.

"The fastest car is a car that needs to be driven in a certain way, especially when you have conditions like here, and to some extent in Austin, with hot Tarmac, sliding tyres," said Stella.

"And the way in which you generate laptime is a way that comes relatively naturally for Lando, and less naturally for Oscar. Lando is the driver of going on low grip, end of the stint when the tyres are quite worn, the grip is low - it's where we see Lando go green sector, green sector, green sector. Oscar, instead, is more of a driver of high grip. That's where he can exploit this incredible talent.