The second half of the 2025 F1 season has been very challenging for Oscar Piastri. McLaren won the Constructors’ Championship by default, and now Lando Norris leads the Drivers’ Championship with a 24-point advantage over the Australian, who had been a near-undisputed leader until Mexico. However, from Monza onwards, Oscar Piastri’s performance declined sharply, and what happened at the Italian track in September may have had a decisive impact.
Piastri: “I wasn’t satisfied after Monza”
Oscar suggested that the team order he received at Monza left a significant mark on his mindset, affecting his performance in subsequent races, especially in Baku just two weeks later. The Australian admitted he often thought about that decision in the days leading up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which became the most difficult weekend of his season.
At Monza, McLaren had asked Oscar to let teammate Lando Norris pass, who was disadvantaged by a slow pit stop. The move was intended to secure a double podium for the team, but the young Australian initially struggled to accept it.
Later, he acknowledged that the decision was “right” and aligned with the team’s internal policy to maintain balance between both drivers competing for the championship and to protect the mechanic responsible for Lando Norris’s pit stop. After that incident, the Melbourne talent went through a very difficult period, losing points to Norris consistently. The Baku weekend proved to be the lowest point, marked by mistakes, incidents, and lack of pace.
“A combination of several factors made that weekend so difficult,” Oscar Piastri said ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix. “Monza hadn’t gone well, and then with everything that happened in the pits, I wasn’t satisfied with how things went.”
Piastri: “Baku was the hardest weekend of my career”
The Australian explained that difficulties in Baku appeared as early as Friday. “We had an engine problem in FP1 that destabilized everything. I wasn’t driving well, and the C6 tires were really tricky to manage. On Saturday I felt I had good pace, but I was pushing too hard. It was the worst weekend of my career, but also the most useful to understand my limits and improve.”
Reflecting on his journey, Oscar Piastri acknowledged that highs and lows are part of every driver’s growth. “In a season, there are perfect moments and others where everything seems to go wrong. It happens to anyone, even the best. The key is to learn from these difficult weekends and turn them into experience for the future.”
After these comments came the Interlagos disaster. Many expected Oscar to be a sort of “Iceman” like Kimi Raikkonen, but he proved more fragile than anticipated. Mentally, he is not yet ready to fight for something big, as shown by repeated mistakes. Yet, this is still a driver in his third F1 season with ample room to grow both technically and mentally.
The clear impression, however, is that McLaren left him somewhat on his own during this challenging period. The British team favoring a homegrown driver would not be unusual, and while Norris has shown solid performance lately, Oscar Piastri, given equal conditions and perhaps treatment, has often been faster than his teammate.
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