PIASTRI REFLECTS ON BECOMING A TITLE CONTENDER AND WHAT'S TO COME AFTER THE BREAK
Lawrence Barretto looks at how, in just his third F1 season, McLaren's Oscar Piastri is a firm title contender in the Drivers' Championship
Over the course of 60 Grands Prix – and around two-and-a-half years – Oscar Piastri has gone from highly-rated rookie to standings leader, blossoming into a genuine contender for his first Formula 1 World Championship.
The 24-year-old Australian has delivered on expectation (he had immense success through junior formulae, winning Formula Renault Eurocup, F3 and F2 back-to-back) – and he's made steady and relentless progress since his debut in 2023.
In his first campaign, the McLaren racer twice reached the podium, scored points in 11 Grands Prix total, took a Sprint win and just finished shy of a century of points on 97.
The following year, albeit helped in part by a stronger car, he secured his first two Grand Prix wins, took four times the number of podiums versus the previous year with eight and scored in all but one Grand Prix. That gave him a points total more than triple the previous campaign (292).
Fast forward to this season and he's already only eight points shy of his total points tally last year – and there are still 10 Grands Prix to go.
He's secured six wins, three times more than last year, has taken 12 podiums (four more than last year), and has scored in all Grands Prix to date. The result is the Drivers' Championship, where has has a nine-point lead ahead of team mate Lando Norris.
"Especially the last six months or so, it's been incredible – there's no other way of putting it," says Piastri, when reflecting on 2025 so far on a pair of very comfy velvet chairs on the top-level of the McLaren motorhome in Hungary before the summer break.
"At the back end of last year, we obviously had some more success, had the championship for the Constructors', but this year has been completely different.
"We are going into some weekends knowing that you're most likely only going to be fighting a team mate [for the win], it's a unique position to be in and a pretty cool one when you can pull that off. So yeah, it's been a lot of fun."
"It's been a lot of fun"
Oscar Piastri on his form in 2025
'There's no noise in Oscar's head'
While Piastri's standing in the pecking order has changed, his cool, calm demeanour both on and off the track has not.
Back in Bahrain, his McLaren boss Andrea Stella said: "There's no noise in Oscar's head, which is a very useful characteristic in Formula 1, and I think this allows him to progress, to process information, to process what's available in the situations as a way of improving himself at a very fast rate."
The way he's coping with the pressure of fighting for a first world title, in only his third season, is impressive. Yes, he's fought for titles before in junior series – but doing so in F1, where the pressure levels are multiplied, is a completely different ballgame. Piastri seems unmoved by it all.
Naturally, his approach and style has impressed his McLaren team and his bosses. Stella said both the Australian and Norris reminded him of multiple world champions he had previously worked with – Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.
Alongside the support he can count on from Stella, CEO Zak Brown and other colleagues at McLaren, Piastri also has former Formula 1 World Championship contender Mark Webber in his corner.
His fellow Australian, who has 217 Grand Prix weekends and nine victories under his belt, was in the fight for the 2010 title before losing out to then team mate Sebastian Vettel. Now he's a key part of Piastri's management.
"It is very useful having Mark around," says Piastri. "He's obviously been in a title battle himself like this, so I think there's probably some emotions coming back, I guess. The advice is very useful. not just in the championship battle, it's been useful from the moment we've been working together.
"I think there's a lot of specifics from fighting for a championship that are a bit different when you're not, so the advice has been very useful.
"I've also been able to lean on my own experiences in the junior categories. It's a bit different in Formula 1, but I've been able to lean on that as well. So yeah, Mark's been very helpful."
"There's not any tension at all, really."
Oscar Piastri on his title-battle with Norris
An 'interesting dynamic'
McLaren are dominating the Teams' Championship – they are leading by a staggering 299 points and could have the crown sewn up before we reach the Americas.
As a result, a two-horse race has emerged for the Drivers' title between Norris and Piastri. And fortunately for the neutral, it's a heck of a fight between the two.
Norris led the way initially, Piastri then developed the edge (his lead hitting 23 points at one stage) but three wins in the last four for Norris saw the gap narrow to just nine heading to the break.
With both operating at such a high level, it is forcing the other to push hard, to be better.
There have been tense moments on track as you'd expect, the tensest of which came in Canada when they collided with Norris retiring – but for the most part, they've raced within McLaren's 'Papaya rules', which essentially boils down to not crashing into each other and putting the team first.
They clearly get on well off track, too, which is no easy feat considering there's so much on the line this year in that only one of them can claim their first title in 2025.
"It's an interesting dynamic, I think," says Piastri. "I think we both feel there's not really any tension. Well, there's not any tension at all, really. I think we get on very well.
"We're building Waffle Towers and doing silly stuff on Thursdays [at track] but obviously once we get on track, then the business starts and we're both very determined to try and win and try and get as many points as we can.
"There's definitely kind of two sides to it but if there's tension in wanting to beat each other, it never spills out off the track, which I think is a nice thing. It is an interesting dynamic in how it kind of changes and flows. We've always gotten on well, so I don't think that'll change."
The stage is perfectly set for second-half of the season, then.
Norris has some experience fighting for a Formula 1 title having given chase of Max Verstappen last year, while Piastri is experiencing it for the first time – though he is looking like a seasoned pro. Both are driving at the peak of their powers.
Norris has the momentum, but Piastri doesn't seem fazed. As he said in Hungary "I'm not concerned at all" about the points gap dropping to nine.
"The pace for the first half of the year has been very, very strong, and I think the last few races as well have been very good," he added. "I feel like I've driven a lot of strong races, and it's been very tightly fought. So, I expect more of the same after the break."
