Piastri has been out-qualified by Norris in five successive rounds and retired from the last race before the break, the Hungarian Grand Prix. Norris won that race, and it was the contrast between the two McLarens in Budapest that prompted Croft to put the question few at Woking would want asked.

Croft raises the number-one question

Speaking on Sky Sports’ The F1 Show, the commentator called Piastri “a fine, fine driver” but said the Australian had run out of pace against his teammate not only in Hungary but across the season.

“Oscar’s got to find a way to match Lando’s pace,” Croft said.

“Not just in Budapest, but I think consistently, over race weekends, he hasn’t had as much pace as Lando.”

Read also: Verstappen turned Norris's summer-break dodge into another swing at F1's battery rules

Croft went further, wondering aloud whether McLaren’s strategy for the second half of the year needs to shift.

“If he can’t, then I think McLaren, with Mercedes as fragile as they are, and Ferrari’s strategy as fragile as it is, McLaren have got to find every way to maximise every advantage.”

“Are they going to put their eggs in a Lando Norris basket, and is it going to come up trumps once again?”

Piastri: ‘a huge reset’

Piastri himself has not tried to hide from the picture. Speaking to Auto Action before the break, the Australian said the new rule set had bent every driver on the grid out of shape and him more than most.

Read also: Al-Nassr open Al Awwal Park to promoted Diriyah as SAR 800m debt bites

“I think this rule set is just so different in so many ways. It’s been a huge reset for us, for me as well,” he told the Australian outlet.

“We’ve come close to some victories and had a few podiums, which has been good, but we obviously set the bar pretty high last year.”

He has scored 92 points from 11 rounds, with two podiums, two non-starts and one retirement on the board, according to Formula 1’s official results.

Barcelona in June was the low point. He finished fifth, well adrift of Norris, and said the weekend had forced him to rethink his own approach.

Read also: In a sealed-off Rosario cemetery, Messi buries the father who built his career

“Barcelona was definitely one of the more difficult weekends of the year, and I had to learn a lot from that one and improve quite a lot.”

“In Austria I felt like I really had to stretch myself a bit more and try some new things, and just go about driving in a slightly different way.”

From Melbourne crash to Budapest DNF

The season set its tone for Piastri in its first fortnight. He crashed on the reconnaissance lap of his home Australian Grand Prix and failed to make the grid, then a McLaren reliability issue kept him out of the Chinese Grand Prix a week later.

He rebuilt with a runner-up finish at Suzuka and third in Miami. Norris’s Hungary win nevertheless underlined where the two McLaren drivers now sit relative to each other going into the season’s second half.

Read also: Excluded from the World Cup, now officiating the Super Cup: the Somali referee's remarkable return

Piastri says the drop in title-fight pressure has given him room to experiment.

“The stakes aren’t quite as high at the moment. There’s a little bit less pressure, which means you’re able to try new things.”

Read also: Trump breaks into the FIFA civil war: 'Replacing Infantino would be a terrible mistake'