Anthony Davidson pinpoints the ‘biggest surprise’ from Oscar Piastri’s 2025 F1 title-challenging campaign

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Last season’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a disappointing low ebb for McLaren driver Oscar Piastri after a decent second season in Formula 1.

Oscar Piastri had won his first Grand Prix in Hungary and helped McLaren win the constructors’ championship for the first time this century.

However, it was his teammate Lando Norris who proved to be Max Verstappen’s biggest challenger as he stormed to his fourth world championship.

Norris finished 82 points ahead of his teammate, and although he only won one more race than Piastri, he was a far more consistent podium finisher.

This season, Piastri has gone up to another level that Norris has struggled to deal with.

McLaren have developed a car with far more advantages than any of their rivals, and going into the summer break, Andrea Stella’s team have a nearly 300-point advantage over every other manufacturer.

It means they should wrap up the constructors’ title in the next few races, allowing Piastri and Norris to go head-to-head without having to worry about the team’s results.

Pundit and former F1 driver Anthony Davidson has been reviewing the first half of the campaign and what has made Piastri so difficult to beat.

He admits that the young Australian has surprised him in one aspect of his performances this year.

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Anthony Davidson stunned by McLaren star Oscar Piastri’s race pace this season

Davidson was speaking to the Dutch outlet Formule 1 Magazine at the halfway stage of the campaign and explained: “The turnaround in race performance is the biggest surprise for me this season with Oscar.

“He always had qualifying speed, regularly beating Lando last year. But it was always race pace that bothered him.

“Take China last year, when Oscar finished 42.5 seconds behind Lando in the race without anything wrong with his car or anything. This year, he has found that race speed.

“I did expect Oscar to take the next step this year, just not such a big one. I knew Oscar could challenge Lando, but I didn’t know he would be leading the championship halfway through.

“I’ve always been impressed by his mentality. Oscar is relaxed, very pragmatic, honest and cool. He’s hard to read; I think he’d be a great poker player! You never know what cards he’s holding.

“The fact that he’s mentally at such a high level and stays there is remarkable. He never shouts over the radio; he’s always calm. Oscar is very aware of how the media works. And that’s a sign of his intelligence.”

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How Andrea Stella views Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s 2025 F1 title battle

Stella and McLaren CEO Zak Brown will be anxiously watching on from the pit wall for the final 10 races of the 2025 season.

As explained above, it shouldn’t be long until the constructors’ championship is secured, but until that moment, they won’t want Norris and Piastri taking any risks on track.

Stella has privately given his verdict on the Norris and Piastri battle, but appears to be on the side of giving the fans exactly what they want from the second half of this set of F1 regulations.

Piastri and Norris have barely been separated in qualifying this season, but the Australian’s consistency has benefited him more than Norris’s higher risk strategy of trying to deliver the perfect lap.

However, there are exceptions to this, such as Piastri’s incredible final lap in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix that led to his first victory of the season.

It will be fascinating to see which driver comes out on top in 2025 and whether alternative race strategies are going to continue to play a key role.