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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri fell just short of winning the 2025 Formula 1 world championship, but will be more motivated than ever to put that right this season.
After watching a 34-point lead after the Dutch Grand Prix disappear, Oscar Piastri had to settle for finishing third in the championship last season.
McLaren had by far the fastest car on the grid last year, which posed a rather unique problem for team principal Andrea Stella.
Both Piastri and his teammate, Lando Norris, were desperate to win the title, and McLaren had no interest in prioritising one driver’s title rush over the other.
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This led to many people suggesting that McLaren were favouring Norris over Piastri as several decisions didn’t go the Australian driver’s way.
The 24-year-old’s happiness was suddenly under the microscope, and Piastri started to be linked to Ferrari among other teams in the paddock.
Journalist Julianne Cerasoli has now shared what Stella has realised he needs to change behind the scenes in his treatment of Piastri if he wants to keep him at McLaren for the foreseeable future.
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Cerasoli was speaking on the Pit Pass F1 podcast about the situation between Piastri and McLaren and suggested: “Stella also said that Oscar Piastri is going to be a world champion with McLaren.
“I know Stella particularly really likes Oscar and really believes in him and was really impressed with the progress he has shown throughout the season.
“I believe he does understand that now he needs to give a lot of support to Oscar, otherwise Oscar is going to leave McLaren, and McLaren may regret it because he is a very good driver who is still developing.
“I was speaking to a few people trying to understand how bad this situation was at McLaren, with maybe them favouring Lando, and what I heard is that it was more like little things.
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“The equipment was always the same, the opportunities were always the same, but it’s the little things in the treatment that then the driver will feel.
“So, when they are trying to extract the maximum, fighting for a world championship with 24 races, it ends up getting bigger than what it should be.
“What Stella said was that they were fighting for the championship with two number one drivers against all odds, and this added a lot of noise inside the team, and he knows that, but that’s the way he wants to go on about racing, and that’s how they are going to do it next year as well.”
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Oscar Piastri backed by F1 fans to be a 2026 championship contender
Fans have heard Honda’s new 2026 engine, and murmurings about Mercedes’ 2026 power unit could be good news for McLaren.
However, until the cars are on track for pre-season testing in Bahrain and then the first race in Australia, it’s too early to accurately predict who might be in championship contention.
That hasn’t stopped fans suggesting Piastri could be world champion in 2026 based on his performances during his first three seasons on the grid.
Very few drivers have improved at the rate Piastri has since his debut in 2023.
What’s most impressive is how targeted his steps up seem to be, fixing the issues he had in qualifying in 2024 by taking six pole positions the following year.
If he can make the same step going into 2026, then McLaren will need to cement Piastri’s place in the team for the foreseeable future.
Whether they’ll be prepared to prioritise him over Norris is incredibly unlikely, but that might be what it takes to keep the Australian driver onside.
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