Reborn. That is perhaps the most fitting word to associate with Oscar Piastri after his outstanding performance in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix. It is not that his difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season had erased the memory of the Australian driver’s undeniable talent. Rather, questions had begun to emerge regarding the true level of competitiveness that McLaren—last year a genuine title contender—would be able to provide him this season.
Despite being one of the youngest drivers on the grid, Oscar Piastri continues to demonstrate remarkable maturity, allowing him to assess the current situation with clarity and composure. “We know from last year,” Oscar Piastri explained, “that even with the best car, you still need to drive at an incredibly high level. I think it’s interesting to see that when someone else has the fastest car, the situation isn’t that straightforward. The fact that I was able to keep George behind me for so long was really encouraging. But we’re not kidding ourselves—we did everything right this weekend, and we still got beaten by 15 seconds, so we’ve got a pretty big gap to close. I’m confident we can do it, but yes, we still have work to do.”
“One of my best weekends in F1”
Clear-headed and objective, Piastri described his Japanese Grand Prix as one of the strongest weekends of his Formula 1 career so far. Indeed, from the very first practice sessions on Friday, he appeared to have an edge—not only over the competition but also relative to his own teammate.
However, the Australian admitted that qualifying may have gone slightly better than expected, particularly in comparison with Ferrari. “We felt like we might be able to stay ahead of Ferrari,” Oscar Piastri said. “Looking back at qualifying, something clearly went wrong with how both Charles and Lewis managed their cars, so the gap I had in qualifying flattered us a bit. We expected it to be a challenge [with them], and honestly, I think Charles and I had very similar pace for most of the race, which is more or less what we expected.”
Safety car regret, but podium boosts confidence
“It would have been really interesting to see what would have happened without the Safety Car,” Oscar added. “I think I could have kept George behind me—just before the pit stops, we were even starting to pull away a little bit. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see how it would have played out. But I think, at this point, second place is a good result. A huge thank you to the team—I think we did a great job with what we had available. Clearly, we still need to find some performance, but today we maximized every opportunity that came our way.”
Although there is a sense of what might have been, the podium finish represents an important morale boost for both driver and team. McLaren now shifts its full focus toward development, fully aware that closing the performance gap will be essential to sustaining a competitive campaign throughout the remainder of the season.
Andrea Stella praises his driver
At the end of Sunday’s race, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella had already spoken highly of Oscar Piastri, even going as far as to describe this as the “best version of himself since he started racing in Formula 1.” Such words can be interpreted as a strong vote of confidence in a driver who has already demonstrated significant speed in the recent past and who now aims to firmly establish himself as a genuine contender in the fight for the drivers’ world championship.
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