‘Very high up’ McLaren figure privately devalued Oscar Piastri’s 2025 victories

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Oscar Piastri will naturally be dejected if he loses out on the 2025 title. But it’s important that his season is placed in perspective.

This is only Piastri’s third season in F1 and he won’t hit 70 race starts at the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi. While teammate Lando Norris hasn’t expected a year-long title fight before, he’s about to make his 150th start.

Last year, Piastri finished fourth in the standings, 82 points behind Norris. He’s already blitzed his 2024 points tally (366 vs 292) and he’s guaranteed an invite to the FIA’s prizegiving ceremony in December.

None of that matters to the Australian compared to a world championship. But he should still feel proud of the leap that he’s taken this year, one that has seen him outqualify Norris after losing out almost every weekend in 2024, and elevate his career win tally from two to nine.

Oscar Piastri benefitted from Lando Norris ‘underperforming’ at McLaren

Before the season, Norris was widely expected to beat Piastri. While that may still be the final outcome, very few saw the Australian having the edge for much of the campaign.

According to ESPN journalist Nate Saunders, this reflected the view inside the McLaren team. A senior figure at Woking told him earlier in the year that Norris had ‘underperformed’, which allowed Piastri to take charge of the title race.

This could be seen to devalue Piastri’s victories, implying that he was reliant on Norris’ inconsistency. But perhaps the Briton has proved the source right by pulling away since the summer break.

“Somebody very high up in the McLaren team said to me earlier this year said the way they looked at the season was, as good as Piastri has been, there was a feeling that Lando had underperformed for a lot of the year, had just been very up and down,” Saunders said.

“What’s happened now, is Lando’s troughs have disappeared, and those peaks are higher than Piastri’s, which is to be expected. He’s in his seventh season, Piastri’s in his third.

“This bit of the year is now actually going in the way that McLaren expected it would. Norris is the more experienced guy, he should win the races, he should be ahead of Piastri.”

The McLaren MCL39 may now be a Lando Norris car

Juan Pablo Montoya says McLaren’s car now suits Norris more than Piastri, but dismissed any suggestion that this was a deliberate choice. This was the unintended consequence of their development direction.

While the MCL39’s characteristics – particularly its front end – may have swung away from Piastri, he arguably should have done a better job at adapting.

Andrea Stella identified ‘technical’ flaws in Piastri’s driving at the USA/Mexico double-header, and while he was closer in Brazil, two key mistakes – one leading to a retirement and the other to a contentious penalty – meant the results didn’t reflect his progress.