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McLaren ace Oscar Piastri believes he made a “leap in quality” to fight for the drivers’ title for the first time in 2025, but there are still a few areas he must improve in 2026.
The 24-year-old built on his experiences from his first two seasons on the grid to emerge as a genuine title threat last year. Piastri even led the F1 drivers’ championship for longer than anyone else in 2025 at 189 days, yet a late-season wobble saw him blow a 34-point margin.
Piastri left last season’s Dutch Grand Prix with some believing he was already the champion-elect after 15/24 rounds, as he won at Zandvoort while teammate Lando Norris retired due to an oil fitting failure. But Piastri only outscored Norris across two of the final seven rounds.
Many point to McLaren telling Piastri to give Norris back P2 in the 2025 Italian GP as one of the first nails in his title hopes’ coffin. Piastri also crashed in qualifying and the race in Baku, which he later admitted was partly caused by being unable to get over the orders at Monza.
FILL IN THE BLANK: Oscar Piastri needs to work on ______ in order to win the 2026 Drivers’ Championship 🏆
Martin Brundle is backing Oscar Piastri to come back better than ever after missing out on the 2025 championship…
Oscar Piastri knows it will be ‘crucial’ to combine strong qualifying results and races in 2026
Piastri looks back on the 2025 F1 season with pride at the progress he made to combine his strong qualifying performances with strong races, having largely excelled in one way but not the other in 2023 and 2024. But the Australian admits he was not always consistent enough.
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The Melbourne native knows it is “crucial” to combine strong qualifying results with strong races, so will strive to achieve that in 2026. But this year also features an additional hurdle, as Piastri is still striving to understand what effect the 2026 F1 regulations will have on him.
“The leap in quality I made last year was due to putting into practice the lessons learned in my first two years in Formula 1 with greater consistency,” Piastri told AutoMoto.it. “In 2023, when I was a rookie, I did better in qualifying than in the race. In 2024, it was the opposite.
“In 2025, I managed to be strong in both crucial areas of a weekend, in most cases. I will have to try to do the same this year, with very different cars.
“I know how to adapt efficiently. Now, I just need to identify the key changes I will have to face in 2026. I already had an idea in Barcelona, and it will become clearer in Bahrain.”
Oscar Piastri has never beaten Lando Norris in a Grand Prix qualifying results head-to-head
Who will be McLaren’s top driver in 2026 – Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri? 🤔
Norris dominated Piastri in their Grand Prix qualifying head-to-head records across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, but the McLaren stars were much more evenly matched over a flying lap in 2025. While Norris again won their duel, Piastri went from losing 15-7 and 20-4 to 13-11.
Piastri scored his first F1 pole position in China in 2025, as well, and ended the season with six poles to his name – only Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (8) and Norris (7) secured more. The Australian also won seven races in 2025 – the same as Norris and one less than Verstappen.
But while Piastri regularly combined strong qualifying results with strong races over the first half of last season, he did not take another pole position after the Dutch GP in round 15/24 until the Qatar Grand Prix in round 23. In that time, Norris regained the championship lead.
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