Lando Norris
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Oscar Piastri made a “gigantic leap” in his development in 2025 to become an F1 title contender, yet James Hinchcliffe still sees one area the McLaren driver must improve.
Hinchcliffe admires how Piastri not only rose to contend for the F1 drivers’ championship in just his third year on the grid but also emerged as the favourite for much of the season. But the 24-year-old would not see out his challenge and, ultimately, finished the season in third.
Piastri led the standings for more of the 2025 F1 season than any driver at 189 days out of a potential 266. He took the top spot after winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in round five out of 24, and he led the way until Lando Norris won the Mexico City Grand Prix in round 20.
Despite Piastri even leading McLaren teammate Norris by 34 points and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen by 104 after winning the Dutch Grand Prix in round 15, he would finish the term 13 and 11 points adrift of his rivals. Piastri also failed to win another race after the Dutch GP.
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Oscar Piastri must learn how to ‘adapt’ when his form drops after his 2025 F1 title collapse
The Dutch GP marked Piastri’s seventh win of the 2025 F1 season, and it also came from his sixth pole position. But the Australian’s season crumbled from round 16 in Italy to round 22 in Las Vegas, and Hinchcliffe thinks he must learn how to “adapt” after the setbacks he faced.
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McLaren telling Piastri to give P2 back to Norris in the Italian Grand Prix put thoughts in his mind that he could not immediately overcome. Piastri crashed in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and he also struggled on the low-grip tracks in Texas, Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Las Vegas.
“Oscar Piastri was the title contender that few would have predicted would be in the fight in 2025,” Hinchcliffe told the F1 website.
“Yes, he had made big strides in 2024, but Norris still was top dog at the end of that season. Turn the page to 2025, and another gigantic leap in development made him not only a contender, but a favourite for much of the year.
“His struggles to adapt when his form dropped in the latter third will be what he focuses on this off-season. But if we know anything about Piastri, it is that he is a very quick learner and will come back in 2026 stronger, faster and hungrier.”
Oscar Piastri’s mindset and inability to adapt held him back in the 2025 F1 title fight
Is qualifying Oscar Piastri’s biggest weakness?
Piastri admitted in November that McLaren’s team orders at Monza were still playing on his mind when he endured a nightmare weekend in Azerbaijan. The Melbourne native crashed during qualifying without posting a lap time in Q3 and jumped the start of the race in Baku.
It also did not help the situation that McLaren irked Piastri by not taking action when Norris barged into him in Singapore, as the move saw the latter take P3 on the first lap. The blows then kept on coming, as McLaren blamed Piastri for crashing into Norris in the COTA Sprint.
Piastri had zero answers for Norris’ speed on the low-grip tracks in Austin, Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Las Vegas, as well. Were it not for McLaren’s double disqualification from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Norris would have even outscored Piastri in seven successive Grands Prix.
McLaren only saw Piastri get his year back on track when it was too late at the Qatar Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which are both held on high grip tracks. Piastri could not modify his driving style to slide the rear of his car to suit what the low grip circuits required.
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