OSCAR PIASTRI IS a man on a mission. Fresh off a statement win in China, the McLaren driver arrives in Japan with a singular focus: to take another crucial step towards his dream of winning the Formula One World Championship.

The McLaren driver bounced back from disappointment at his home race in Melbourne, the 2025 F1 season-opener, where he finished ninth after an off-track excursion in treacherous conditions, to win just one week later in China with a controlled drive ahead of his teammate Lando Norris.

And he has to repeat that feat this weekend at iconic track Suzuka. Piastri knows the location well. It’s where he stood on his first F1 podium back in 2023. And now, he needs to conjure that magic again to close the 10-point gap to standings leader Norris, who was mentally shaken after his Shanghai struggles.

“It’s very, very early, clearly,” Piastri says, when pressed on talk of a title fight. “But I think no matter how short or long the [world] championship is, you need to maximise the car that you have every race . . . We saw last year [Red Bull’s Max] Verstappen was able to win the [world] championship by capitalising on the car he had in the first part of the year. He did a good job through the rest of the year as well, but he built the [points] gap when he had the ability.”

Oscar Piastri McLaren

Piastri is spot-on about Verstappen’s early season last year, with Red Bull’s dominance ending at the Miami Grand Prix. The Dutchman won seven of the first 10 races, then none of the next 10, but kept scoring points to put the silverware out of reach for the rest of the grid. Piastri has the same opportunity this year, but then again, so does Norris.

Norris came back this year with a renewed confidence that helped him win first time out in Australia. China just didn’t suit the Brit – and Piastri has to capitalise on that in Japan with a second-straight win, and at the ultimate drivers’ track where all the greats have shone. The battle will be razor-close though. Both McLaren drivers have the best car on the grid – the Mercedes-powered MCL39 is a rocket – and they’re expected to push each other to the limit.

“We’ve got different strengths and weaknesses as drivers,” Piastri says. “This weekend [in China] there were certain points where it just worked a bit to my favour, naturally. And I think there’s been other weekends where it definitely hasn’t, and I’ve had to try and look at things from how Lando’s driven and apply them myself. I think that is definitely the advantage – or an advantage – we have. Having strong teammates, you always learn from each other.”

Oscar Piastri F1 Grand Prix Of China

The 23-year-old will naturally have plenty of Aussie support as he goes after his dreams, and not just from those trackside or watching on TV, with his McLaren team sponsored by Melbourne-born company Airwallex, a global financial platform that accelerates the British team’s cross-border payments as they fly from race to race around the globe.

But, in F1, nothing is guaranteed until you get to the chequered flag. And Piastri has to now take the advantage while it’s his, especially with the other top teams like Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari still lagging behind. “I think for me it’s been very satisfying to have probably my most complete weekend in F1 this weekend be at a track I struggled the most at last year,” Piastri said in China.

“[I’m] very pleased with the hard work that not just I’ve done, but the whole team around me [has done]. The engineers on my side of the garage, but everyone at McLaren – for firstly giving us a car that’s much stronger than it was 12 months ago here, but also being able to chip in where they can and try to help me improve,” Piastri continued. “I think it’s been a really nice show of progress in 12 months, but there’s still going to be challenges along the way. It’s just a nice confidence boost at the moment.”

Should McLaren’s dominance continue, though, it will be fascinating to see if Piastri and Norris can keep their fight just to the track. In F1, teammates fall out when they are the only ones fighting for wins and the title – a situation we last saw at Mercedes in 2016, when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg went to war, with the German coming out on top and then famously quitting the sport just days after the final round in Abu Dhabi.

McLaren’s most intense teammate battle, between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1988 and 1989, is infamous. The pair took the gloves off with their Honda-powered MP4/4 and MP4/5 cars the class of the field, with each claiming a crown before Prost left for Ferrari. Could lightning strike twice at the papaya team?

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris at the Chinese Grand Prix

The 39th Japanese Grand Prix, and milestone 35th to be held at Suzuka, will be held this Sunday at 2pm local time (3pm AEST).

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Oscar Piastri has his eyes on the prize