Max Verstappen has been warned Oscar Piastri will not tolerate the Dutchman’s “crap” as the two battle for this season’s Drivers’ Championship.

Piastri’s run of three wins on the bounce has made him the favourite for the title but Verstappen, the reigning champion, is still not one to be entirely ruled out.

Oscar Piastri backed to take the fight to Max Verstappen

Already this season Piastri has shown he is not afraid to take on Verstappen, a driver who can often make others bend to his will rather than the other way around.

In Miami, they produced one of the moments of the season as they jostled for the lead, a battle that was won by Piastri, who went on to claim the race victory by an impressive margin.

Following his excellent start to the year, Piastri has been sought out for praise by another Australian racer, Alan Jones. The 1980 F1 champion said his compatriot would not take the “crap” offered by Verstappen.

“He sees a gap and goes for it, and Oscar is not going to be put off by that,” Jones told Fox Sports.

“There’s a lot of other drivers he’ll bluff and hold them to ransom a bit, but I believe Oscar has got the mental strength not to put up with that crap.

“He’ll just take it for what is and give it back to him.”

The praise comes after Jones described Piastri’s team-mate Lando Norris as “weak” and of the two McLaren drivers, Jones believes Piastri is the future World Champion

“He is without a doubt a future world champion,” Jones said. “He’s come out of almost nowhere and he’s got all the attributes that you need to be a world champion.

“The first person you’ve got to beat is your team-mate. He can do it [win the title] this year, no question. At the end of the day, his team-mate is weak.

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“His team-mate is quite quick, there’s no doubt about that. But mentally, I think he’s quite a weak person. He’s coming out with all this nonsense that he’s got a bit of a mental thing, he’s dwelling on some of the problems he’s had rather than the positives.

“When they start talking all that nonsense, you know you’ve got them.”

Piastri has a 16-point lead over Norris after six races. No McLaren driver has won the world title since Lewis Hamilton’s success in 2008.

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