For lengthy spells of the 2025 sormula 1 eason, Oscar Piastri regarded the person to beat whereas team-mate Lando Norris struggled along with his automotive and Crimson Bull was all at sea.
A mixture of an off-weekend in Azerbaijan and low-grip struggles in Austin and Mexico then opened the door for his rivals to swoop previous, with the Australian now eager to carry out at his scintillating greatest for your complete season.
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Ronald Vording – Solely consistency leaves room for enchancment
Piastri has proven spectacular progress over the previous seasons, a development that’s extremely more likely to proceed in 2026. The Australian skilled his first title struggle final 12 months, and that have will undoubtedly profit him within the seasons forward. As for the rankings, I’ve been barely extra essential throughout the board than most of my colleagues, which implies my numbers are typically a bit decrease. When it comes to pure tempo, I’ve ranked Piastri behind Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and (very marginally) Lando Norris – which leads to a 91. His racecraft sits at roughly the identical stage, partly as a result of Piastri produced a number of spectacular overtakes across the outdoors final 12 months – together with one which has largely flown beneath the radar, however nonetheless deserves to be talked about: his cross on Lewis Hamilton within the closing phases of his Melbourne dwelling race. Based mostly on the second half of 2025, solely consistency leaves room for enchancment. Sure, there was lots occurring behind the scenes at McLaren and the papaya guidelines didn’t all the time work in his favour, however with Baku and the low-grip situations in Austin and Mexico, Piastri himself had just a few harder weekends. Consistency can nonetheless enhance, though given his improvement charge there may be little doubt that he’ll make that step in the end.
Oscar Piastri gained seven grands prix in 2025 on his approach to third within the championship.
Photograph by: Bryn Lennon / System 1 / Getty Photographs
Jake Boxall-Legge – How will Piastri fare in lower-grip F1 automobiles?
If pre-season race simulations are something to go by, McLaren and Crimson Bull ought to have their moments of being evenly matched throughout 2026. Piastri, after seeing the title slip via his fingers within the ultimate third of final 12 months, can have processed the extra unpalatable classes from 2025 – however the jury stays out on how he’ll cope with the lower-grip automobiles.
Whereas extra capable of cope with the obvious lack of cueing from the McLaren automotive final 12 months, significantly in high-speed corners, Piastri must adapt to the flightier, looser ’26 machines – one thing that Norris and Verstappen have traditionally been helpful at coping with. Will he have the ability to get on high of the brand new automobiles?
Stuart Codling – A change in entourage may assist him
At his sensible greatest, Oscar Piastri proceeds like a swan gliding throughout the water; beneath the floor these legs could be paddling furiously however, above, nothing disrupts the image of disdainful hauteur. Nonetheless, over the disastrous course of a handful of races late final season he shipped over 100 factors to Max Verstappen.
This disconcertingly peculiar slippage of type, largely however not fully at tracks the place circumstances had mixed to ship sub-optimal grip, left just a few query marks the place none had hovered earlier than. Piastri has modified his entourage final 12 months – in all probability for the most effective if fewer persons are whispering darkly in his ear that the crew is favouring his team-mate – so hopefully the mix of thoughts coach and pragmatic engineering assist will allow him to expunge such errors.
Nonetheless, if he cannot up his recreation in low-grip situations, he will discover the looser 2026 F1 automobiles a battle.
Study extra about Oscar Piastri and his highway to F1 via his profession in footage.
How our score system works
To set the drivers aside, we’ve got taken inspiration from the official F1 recreation to attribute scores in 4 completely different classes, out of a most of 100.
Expertise (EXP): An goal rating merely primarily based on the driving force’s expertise stage via complete race begins
Racecraft (RAC): The motive force’s potential to race wheel to wheel, both to defend a place or pull off a decisive overtake, with out touchdown themselves in hassle with the stewards
Consistency (CON): The motive force’s potential to maintain clear, keep away from unforced errors whereas being constantly fast in a race
Tempo (PAC): Displays a driver’s tempo over one lap, largely in relation to their team-mate
General Score (OVR): The 4 above classes will probably be mixed into an total score, weighted in direction of Tempo.
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