Oscar Piastri reveals what he told McLaren engineers after Lando Norris won the first race of 2025

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McLaren nearly started off the season with the best possible scenario: a one-two finish. The weather got the better of Oscar Piastri that day, but the Australian driver has now revealed how the race filled him with optimism.

Oscar Piastri was in his finest form in the races that came after his home Grand Prix in Melbourne, snatching the lead of the F1 standings four races later in Jeddah.

He was knocked off his perch at the top of the drivers’ championship after the recent Mexico City Grand Prix, and has since been on the back foot in the title fight to his McLaren counterpart, Lando Norris.

Max Verstappen has also thrown a few spanners into the works of Piastri’s hunt for a first world title.

The Red Bull star is now four points ahead of the 24-year-old, but it’s still all to play for as the F1 circus readies itself for the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

• READ MORE: Martin Brundle thinks he knows how Oscar Piastri would react to McLaren’s ‘nuclear’ team orders

Oscar Piastri reveals what he told McLaren after the first race of the 2025 season in Melbourne

Speaking to the French edition of Vanity Fair, the nine-time Grand Prix winner revealed what he told engineers back at Woking about the MCL39 after its first racing venture in the inaugural race of the 2025 season.

Piastri said, “From the very first Grand Prix in March, at home in Melbourne, I finished ninth, and Lando won.

“But that weekend, something happened with the car; it was as if we were one, it and I. It was very clear that my car was performing well, and our team was very strong.

“So naturally, when you think you have the best-performing car and the strongest team, you put yourself in a position to fight for the top spots in the championship.

“A few days later, I went to see my engineers and told them: ‘You know, we have a really powerful car, I think we can win races this year.'”

The McLaren star certainly wasn’t telling any lies. Split equally between Norris and himself, the MCL39 has been driven to victory 14 times so far during 2025.

A win at the title showdown race in Abu Dhabi would take the tally up to 15 for the year.

• READ MORE: Zak Brown ‘explicitly confirmed’ McLaren’s stance on Oscar Piastri team orders to help Lando Norris

Oscar Piastri’s championship challenge unravelled after the summer break

Piastri’s peak in the F1 standings came after the conclusion of the Dutch GP in August. Norris had just retired from the race, handing the Australian a 34-point advantage in the leaderboards.

What’s even more striking is the fact that Piastri led Verstappen by 104 points in the standings after securing the first Grand Chelem of his career at Zandvoort.

Martin Brundle has pleaded Piastri’s case during his low period in recent months. Amid the flashes of recklessness, the McLaren star has also been severely unlucky in some instances.

Despite the fact that securing the championship is a very tall order at the moment, the 24-year-old can take a lot of positives from a season that has made it easy to forget that it’s only his third in Formula 1.