Oscar Piastri may have lost ground to McLaren teammate Lando Norris in Monaco, but former Formula 1 driver Mika Salo believes the Australian will bounce back.
Piastri, who still narrowly leads the world championship, finished behind Norris after a self-admitted scrappy weekend.
"I think I've hit more walls this weekend than I have in my whole career," the 24-year-old said.
Despite his consistency so far this season, Piastri's relative struggles in Monaco didn't surprise fellow ex-F1 driver Giedo van der Garde.
"Piastri is very good on some circuits, not at all good on other circuits," he told Viaplay.
"He never seems to do well on street circuits."
However, Salo believes the Australian's mindset gives him an edge over Norris in the long term.
"Piastri is the mentally stronger one," the 58-year-old said. "So he doesn't care too much if he loses once.
"In the long run, Piastri is much stronger, mentally. Norris makes more mistakes, while Piastri is much cooler and thinks more about the championship."
Salo also downplayed the idea that Norris' Monaco win marks a shift in momentum.
"Monaco is just different," he said. "In Barcelona, everything will be different again."
Meanwhile, Red Bull's Max Verstappen remains close in the title chase — just 25 points behind, or as Christian Horner put it, "one win."
Verstappen, who started and finished fourth, took the Monaco weekend in stride.
"Hopefully it will go better in Barcelona," he said. "Hopefully it suits our car a bit better, and that should be the case.
"Seven tenths behind in qualifying again wouldn't be good," he laughed.
"But I'm honestly not thinking about the championship at all. I just take it race by race. You always know that you will be more competitive on some circuits than others.
"It was clear that we would have a harder time in Monaco. So given our speed throughout the weekend, we did well."
Van der Garde, a long-time friend of Verstappen, praised the Dutchman's maturity.
"It's nice to see him so realistic," he said. "Max knew the car wasn't strong enough so he just wanted to tick off Monaco and he did that well and smartly."
