Oscar Piastri’s sangfroid response to his painful Australian Grand Prix result will stand him well in the upcoming 2025 Formula 1 title battle with Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, but of the early contenders he alone now faces a big early points deficit.
PLUS: Did Red Bull blow its 'Canada' chance to hand Verstappen Norris's Melbourne win?
Such gaps can be overcome – Verstappen was 46 adrift leaving Melbourne in 2022, when the race was back at round three. But Verstappen only had to outlast a Ferrari team set to implode at every turn that year, with zero intra-team competition from Sergio Perez.
While Liam Lawson’s Melbourne result should be a stark warning for any Red Bull hopes of recovering the constructors’ championship this year, there are many more differences now F1 has finally got a multi-team title battle from the off once again.
And these are both good and bad for Piastri.
He is clearly a title contender this year, such is his talent and experience – even in only his third F1 campaign. Norris even credited his team-mate’s high level for spurring them both on “to get one and a half tenth more” compared to Verstappen and George Russell at Mercedes in qualifying.
Like Red Bull in the previous years of this rules era, this is where the other teams can get close, before McLaren’s in-race advantage with the tyres comes to bear.
This was on full display just before both McLarens were having their wild off-track excursions on Sunday - where Piastri was just caught out slightly more than Norris as the rain returned late on at his home track’s final corners.
“I tried to push a bit too much, I guess,” he said afterwards. “In those conditions, it's very difficult to judge just how slippery it's going to be. I could see Lando going off in front of me. But I was also already in the corner, basically.
“So, there wasn't much I could do to slow myself down at that point. And then once you're in the gravel and the grass, you obviously try to keep the car as straight as possible. And then, yeah, obviously to get stuck in the grass like that was pretty unbelievable inside of the car.
“But I've only got myself to blame for being there, so it's a shame. It was still a hell of a recovery there after the crash.”
Indeed, had he not needed to give back 12th to Esteban Ocon after a restart snafu that Piastri felt was worth “three or four seconds”, he might’ve got back from a lapped 15th to threatening Lance Stroll’s sixth place, rather than the ninth he actually secured. That’s a result helped, of course, by the safety car that followed his high-tech lawn-mowing.
“Essentially, 56 laps of today's [57-lap] race I was very proud of the job I did,” Piastri reflected. “I felt like the pace was really strong.
“And, yeah, I was really disappointed with the mistake I made. Nothing to take away completely from how strong the whole weekend's been for not just the team but for myself. I feel like I've done a good job all weekend.
“So, I think it would be pessimistic of me to just write off the whole weekend because it was one mistake.”
Indeed, this event surely showed exactly how nip-and-tuck things are going to be all year long between the McLaren drivers – and Verstappen hauling the slower Red Bull into contention.
The close chase between Norris and Piastri after the Dutchman had made a rare wet-weather blunder did put their rules of engagement saga briefly back in the spotlight.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the double instruction for Piastri to hold position through laps 30-32 was due to the orange team needing “clarity as to the weather prediction and what this meant for how we should have used the tyres, and until we had closed the matter of overtaking the backmarkers [the two Haas cars and Lawson, ahead on track at this stage]”.
“Once this was completed and the weather was assessed, then we reopened the racing,” Stella added.
Piastri said pushing to be so close to Norris before the order “killed my front left a little bit”, which explained why he’d dropped back from DRS threat just as the leader lifted his pace and Piastri had a Turn 6 gravelstrike too.
The Australian was also unconcerned by the team orders situation post-race given “today's race and the circumstances were pretty extreme”.
“We were approaching backmarkers, [with] one dry line, not knowing if there was going to be rain to come,” he added.
“I'll speak to the team and try and understand better what the thinking was, but I think it's always clear that those kind of calls can come in either direction.”
But, ultimately, Piastri now has a 23-point deficit already in what could be a title battle that goes the distance for the first time since 2021. And it might’ve been 25 but for his late-race tenacity, during which his Turn 9 outside-line pass on Lewis Hamilton was a stunning beauty.
But, according to Stella, don’t expect his head to drop as a result of this early setback.
“The good thing with Oscar is that you don't have to do much of the psychological exercises of convincing him not to get too upset with himself or with the situation,” Stella explained.
“Because he is one of the mentally strongest drivers that I've ever met. So, I'm sure in China he will be back and very soon he will have important results.”
The McLaren drivers were focused on making much better starts to their seasons given that beginning the campaign so far behind Verstappen was so costly for Norris last year, so this is far from ideal for Piastri.
He has the pace, but he does need to quickly achieve such glittering results again in 2025 to ensure his early points gap does not become a burden. It’s early to be saying so, yes. But given how close this year seems set to be, every point will matter. See Piastri’s chase to the flag as thrilling evidence.
