What Oscar Piastri learned from the championship that slipped away
Seven wins, one painful lesson and Piastri’s next title push
“ALL EYEZ ON ME”. You could forgive Oscar Piastri if he were to find himself singing along to Tupac Shakur’s ’90s hip-hop banger in the lead up to the Australian GP at Melbourne’s Albert Park this month.
Given Piastri’s much-talked about flameout in 2025, the reason the Aussie might feel like he’s under the microscope this season is patently obvious. The question everyone wants answered: will the McLaren driver be able to redeem himself following last year’s excruciating campaign, one that netted seven wins but not the maiden driver’s championship that looked to be Piastri’s for the taking through most of the season?
The coveted silverware, the holy grail of world motorsport that bears the signature of all 35 title holders since 1950, slipped through his fingers and into the hands of his teammate, Lando Norris – who became McLaren’s first F1 World Drivers’ Champion, its 13th overall, since Lewis Hamilton first broke through in 2008.
Forget playing the Aussie favouritism card that proved such an online hit, though. Norris just had a much stronger second half of the season, especially through the low-grip Americas circuits – Austin, Mexico and São Paulo – held in October and November, where he dominated at the latter two and outscored Piastri by 46 points.
Add in the resurgent Red Bull car of Max Verstappen, who won six of the last nine races – and Piastri’s chances to regain the standings’ lead he lost in Mexico became ever-slimmer, despite still being in contention at the Abu Dhabi finale. He finished second to Verstappen, the four-time world champion in the UAE, but was 13-points short of what he needed to take the crown.
Piastri was magnanimous in defeat – even though he had led the championship standings from Saudi Arabia to Mexico, some 189 days.
“Obviously, I would have wished for a slightly different ending, but I think this year I’ve learned a hell of a lot about myself as a race car driver, myself as a person,” he said in the immediate aftermath of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. “I think if you had presented this season at the start of the year with the pole positions and the wins and the podiums, I definitely would have been pretty happy with that. And I think even in the tough moments, I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I can be stronger in the future.”
He also praised his teammate, Norris, showing character and class.
“I think [he’s] a very deserving winner,” the Melburnian said. “I know that every weekend I go on track, it’s going to be tough. And I think we’ve pushed each other through the last three years. I think especially this season has been tighter than ever. So, yeah, I think he’s had a great season. Probably all three of us [who fought for the championship, including Red Bull’s Max Verstappen], but obviously, myself and Lando in the same team, in the same car, have had our ups and downs at different moments.”
Piastri is anything but down and out. Last year was just the Australian’s third season of F1, compared with Norris’ seventh, and his first real shot at the title. It was always going to be a near-vertical learning curve, even for a 24-year-old who’s mentally ice-cold and applies searing speed and razor-sharp race craft out on track.
The first port of call will be to minimise mistakes that cost him valuable points: from his skid onto the grass in treacherous conditions at the season-opener in Australia that left him ninth rather than second; erratic driving behind the safety car at the British Grand Prix that landed him a 10-second time penalty and cost him the win; a nightmare weekend in Azerbaijan that saw him crash in qualifying, jump the race start and then crash on the opening lap; and a crash in the Sprint race in Brazil.
Piastri’s teammate Norris also made his fair share of mistakes, many of them making the paddock and fans question whether he had a title in him – like his qualifying crash in Saudi Arabia. Or his clumsy contact with Piastri in Canada, where the Brit attempted to pass for fourth place and then crashed out, rather than just bank points. But ultimately, he performed when it mattered most to secure the silverware.
Piastri’s last win, his seventh of 2025 – the most of any Australian in a single season in F1 history – and ninth overall, matching the career haul of his manager and ex-F1 driver Mark Webber, came at the Dutch Grand Prix in August. That inability to win again in the nine races remaining hurt his campaign, no doubt.
But while many might chalk this up to fatigue – (bad) luck also played its part. Piastri, for example, arrived in Las Vegas, the first leg of a gruelling final cross-continent triple header to end the season, ready to be aggressive to make up the then-24 point gap (less than a win) to championship leader Norris.
“I need to try and have a good weekend, make up some points in the championship if I can. So I will be taking some chances out there,” he said at the time.
But, in the end both McLaren cars were disqualified from the Sin City race for excessive skid block wear, meaning Piastri had it all to do to close the gap to Norris in the season’s final two Middle East rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The Australian did all he could with two successive runner-up finishes, but it wasn’t enough.
Some of the paddock’s wisest figures believe Piastri’s return to the top is all but inevitable in 2026 – including veteran Sky Sports UK commentator Martin Brundle, who is also an ex-F1 driver with 158 starts, and a Le Mans winner.
“I think he’ll come back with a vengeance, to be honest,” Brundle told Sky Sports F1, the broadcaster shown in Australia via Fox Sports on Kayo and Foxtel.
“It was partly painful, partly brilliant for him last year. He learned a lot. I think that it’s openly accepted that on the really low-grip circuits, he’s not getting the best out of the car and out of the tyre, so he knows he’s got to fix that.
“But some of the victories he’s had were so dominant, so impressive. I think he’ll take a lot from that. I’m sure it was painful in the end for him and I think that will be a driver [for him this season].”
Piastri is also looking forward to F1’s exciting new era, with its 30kg lighter cars that run on sustainable fuel, feature moveable wings front and rear, and have an almost 50-50 split between engine and electric power. McLaren is expected to run at or near the front again. And there will be two fresh new rivals on the grid from the opening round in Australia, care of American start-up Cadillac – and a new brand in German marque, Audi, which has taken over the old Sauber team.
“I’m excited. I’ve had a good first three years in F1 and this is my first regulation reset, so it’s going to be interesting to see where we come out as a team,” Piastri said, following 2026’s first (closed door) test in Barcelona in late January.
“But, I feel like last year I really proved to myself the things that I’m capable of. Definitely [there are] still the things I need to improve and work on as well. I feel like I really took a good step forward and those lessons I can take forward [too].”
Credits:
Photography: James Anastasi
Styling: Catherine Hayward
Grooming: Josh Knight at Caren using Patrick’s products
Executice production: Kate Wiggal
Production: Elliot Zelmanovitz
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