With six Grands Prix remaining in the season, Max Verstappen leads the standings with a lead of 52 points over Lando Norris. The Dutchman is therefore the clear favorite to win his fourth title, even if his lead continues to shrink and his last victory dates back to Barcelona in June.
Red Bull driver’s luck? It’s his rival, Lando Norris. The Briton is very fast, but he is also inconsistent, unsure of himself, and makes a lot of mistakes without which he would be almost at the top of the championship today. On race Sundays, Lando Norris is so consumed with anxiety that he eats nothing and is barely able to drink.
At McLaren, we know these failings well. And we know that there is only a slim chance that he will beat Max Verstappen in the championship. However, we have no worries: we also know that 2025 will be the year of a McLaren driver’s title – the first since Lewis Hamilton in 2008. And it will be Oscar Piastri.
At 23, the young Australian is brimming with talent. Until now, he had won everything: karting, then Formula 3 and Formula 2 in quick succession. This year, he has already won two Grands Prix (in Budapest and Baku). He is super-fast, consistent, makes very few mistakes, fights hard with his rivals, does almost no damage to his car.
But above all, he thinks quickly. Behind his wheel, at 300 km/h, he analyzes the race as if he were sitting at his desk. The McLaren team is as impressed by his performance as they are charmed by his modesty and calm.
At his first victory, in Hungary, he did not even display the joy of the winner on the podium: he was already wondering how to do better next time. “I’ve never seen determination like Oscar’s,” said Tom Stallard, his race engineer. “He is constantly progressing, he wants to learn, to understand. He listens, he assimilates. He manages his tires much better today than at the start of the season, it’s the trickiest thing in F1. Next year he will be hard to beat.”
His main quality, apart from his mastery of the wheel? “His brain. It’s a kind of supercomputer,” say those who know him best, the two mentors from his beginnings: the Australian James Sera – who helped him in karting, which he started at nine years old – and the Briton Rob McIntyre – who oversaw his years in Formula 4 and Formula 3.
Oscar Piastri is the perfect driver, a sort of mix between the class of Lewis Hamilton and the tenacity of Max Verstappen. For the end of the season, the Australian will try to help Lando Norris in his quest for the title. But Oscar Piastri knows it as well as his team: the 2025 season will be his.
