Lando Norris
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Oscar Piastri lost the 2025 championship to his McLaren teammate Lando Norris when it seemed it was almost guaranteed that he would win it.
After winning the Dutch GP, the Australian led the standings by 34 points. Norris had suffered a mechanical DNF, giving Piastri a comfortable margin heading into the final nine races.
However, that would be his last win of the season as the pressure of the championship battle, team orders and issues with the MCL39 ultimately held him back. The 24-year-old finished the season in P3, 13 points behind Norris and 11 behind Max Verstappen.
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Piastri lost 47 points through individual mistakes, as seen with crashes in Baku and the Sao Paulo Sprint. McLaren boss Andrea Stella admits the title pressure got to Piastri at the Azerbaijan GP, as his accident on the opening lap set up a downward spiral of results.
It was a gut-wrenching defeat for Piastri, especially when he had looked so comfortable after the summer break. But mistakes began to creep in, and the characteristics of the MCL39 did not help his bid to recover his form.
Oscar Piastri made an unnatural change to his driving style to cope with his struggles on low-grip circuits
Piastri struggled on the low-grip circuits, particularly in Austin and Mexico City. Meanwhile, Norris flourished with his ability to ‘kick out the back end’ and get on the throttle.
His teammate’s driving style did not suit this, and was thus forced to make a change that was not ‘natural’ to him, as journalist Jake Boxall-Legge discussed on the TYRED GP YouTube channel.
He said: “I kind of agree on the McLaren assessment that, yeah, it was a low grip thing but again, it’s more of a, in comparison to Norris sort of situation.
Finish the sentence: In his Formula 1 career, Oscar PIastri will win ____ titles
“Again, as I say, he likes to sort of have that dynamism, particularly with the rear end, and so he’s able to on low grip surface, sometimes you do need to just kick the back end out and catch it and just sort of hit the throttle and hope for the best and Norris is really good at doing that.
“And I think for Piastri, it’s not a natural thing that comes to him and again, as he’s a very sort of stable driver. I think his personality kind of echoes his driving style in many ways.
“And I don’t think he finds that natural at all, and that’s why he struggled so much because he was trying to basically, not emulate Norris as such, but drive the car in a way that it needed to be driven to go fast.
“So I think that was sort of the main reason for the struggle because the way he was doing it wasn’t working, so it would have been even worse. And so he had to do something that he didn’t feel very comfortable with.”
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What does Oscar Piastri need to do to win the 2026 F1 title?
A clean slate in 2026, especially with the new regulation changes, offers a fresh start for Piastri, who will be looking to go better and win the championship. But after his collapse in 2025, many are questioning his talent.
Christian Danner says Piastri lacks ‘consistency’ compared to his rivals. It is an essential trait for a world champion, with Norris and Verstappen displaying strong results in the final nine races which boosted them ahead of the Aussie.
Alain Prost thinks Piastri ‘still needs to establish himself’ at McLaren if he wants to become a challenger for the championship. Norris has been with the team since 2019 and has now cemented himself as their golden talent with his title win.
Damon Hill has told Piastri to make demands about team orders to McLaren after he lost points to Norris through the team’s intervention, most notably at Monza and Singapore. But ultimately, his mistakes and struggles at the end of the season were his undoing.
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