Oscar Piastri's 2025 Season: What comes next?

Oscar Piastri has raced his heart out this season against teammate Lando Norris.

Piastri and Norris both achieved seven victories this season, but a downturn in form for Piastri in the second half of the season saw him lose his commanding lead in the standings and drop behind his teammate, Norris, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

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Piastri headed into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with mixed emotions, having seen his dominant weekend in Qatar fall away from him due to an unsuccessful team strategy. Nevertheless, he maintained his rediscovered form to qualify third for the finale, behind his fellow title contenders on the front row.

With a 16 point deficit to overcome in order to win the championship, Piastri recognised that a lot had to fall into place for him to have a chance. A strong start saw him make a swooping overtake on Norris for P2 on the opening lap, but he couldn't do much to get the better of Verstappen, especially on a 41 lap stint on his hard tyres.

Post-race, Piastri was asked how he was feeling about finishing second in the race, he replied:

"Honestly, pretty good. I knew that going into today I needed the stars to align to win the championship.

Ultimately, I tried my best and put myself in the best position I could to try and win the race and give myself the best opportunity, but it wasn't to be. I think we can be very proud of the season we've had.

On a personal level, it's obviously not quite the ending that I wished for but I think when you look at the season as a whole, I'm very proud of the work that I've been able to put in and my team have been able to put in to make so much progress from last year. I'm looking forward to plenty more fights in the future."

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McLaren elected to split the strategies of their two drivers. Starting the eventual champion on medium tyres whilst Oscar Piastri was given a set of the hard compound to begin the race. The choice allowed him to extend his first stint, but meant that by the time he finally pitted, he had to face Verstappen's unassailable lead of 24 seconds.

Due to the three contenders all finishing on the podium, Piastri lost out on his maiden title by 13 points, with Norris ending the season on 423 points, to beat their Red Bull rival by just two points.

Piastri had a good run at the very end of the season, with a stand out performance in Qatar. But, unfortunately for him, he needed a miracle and a half to be able to take home the World Driver's Championship.

This is not the end of Oscar Piastri. If anything, this will have motivated him even more to come back next season even stronger. Next year will certainly be interesting... will Lando Norris keep hold of the championship and go for the double? Will Oscar Piastri steal it away to claim his maiden World Drivers Championship? Or will Max Verstappen come back to bite them and steal his crown back?

Join us in Melbourne to unravel the start of the 2026 season!