I think PIA has just done the maths and is driving very conservatively at this stage of the season. Earlier in the year you could see him being much more aggressive, but now he appears to be protecting his points lead. NOR, on the other hand, has to be aggressive and take more risks. A slightly different bump last night and he takes himself out of the race, or takes VER out, or takes PIA out. With an aggressive mindset, that’s probably an acceptable risk.
Once the points permutations reduce, we may well see Oscar have an ‘accident’ with his teammate if it’s to his advantage. There is plenty of precedent in F1 and I think NOR knows that!
PIA 336
NOR 314
VER 273
Any driver other than NOR winning, helps PIA, as long as he only drops 3 points in the gap between teammates each race. Similarly, even if VER won all six remaining races, as long as PIA is also on the podium he takes the championship.
Will be interesting to see if the mindset changes during the swing through the Americas.