While the battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris drew all the headlines last year, the first five races of 2025 have seen another name consistently in the mix: Oscar Piastri.
This season, the Australian driver had either been in front of Norris or nipping at his heels like the proverbial Tasmanian Devil. But now he’s holding the top position in the drivers’ standings ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. Is this the year that Australia breaks a 45-year drought to bring the trophy down under? It’s time to look at Piastri’s career and all the factors accompanying his drive this year, to explain why so many believe it just might happen.
Piastri’s Road to Formula 1
A Melbourne native, Piastri began karting at the age of nine before stepping up to the junior formulae categories six years later. A string of impressive results followed, with Piastri winning the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019, the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2020, and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2021. He’s the only driver to win all three titles in consecutive years, and also one of just six drivers to win the F2 Championship in his rookie season.
As a member of the Alpine Academy, the Australian seemed destined to begin his F1 career with the French team. However, some contractual bumbling allowed McLaren to swoop in, then paying off fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo to put the young Melbournite in Papaya. Of course, McLaren was still solidly in the midfield back in 2023, leading us now to wonder if Piastri and his manager, former F1 driver Mark Webber, also dabble in clairvoyance.
While some corners accused Piastri of “lacking integrity,” his entrance into the top tier of motorsport gave an early glimpse of that ruthless mindset, a trait shared by the likes of Verstappen, Hamilton, Schumacher and Senna.
Championship Potential
While Norris was clearly the lead McLaren driver in both 2023 and 2024, the signs of a promising future for Piastri were already there. A win in the Qatar sprint race in his rookie season was backed up by second in the primary Qatar race, third in Japan, fourth in Silverstone, and fifth in Hungary. He also outqualified his more experienced teammate on several occasions.
On the face of it, Piastri was still some way behind Norris in their second season, but his star was quietly rising, showing improvements in tire management and rock-solid consistency. Over the course of 2024, Piastri outqualified Norris four times and beat him in eight races, two of which were first places. Some clever first-lap overtakes revealed Oscar’s strong and determined racecraft, while Norris often lost positions through the opening corners.
Why the 2025 Season Favors Piastri
If Piastri made a strong step forward in 2024, his progress this year has been even more impressive. The season opener in Melbourne saw him hunting down Norris, only to be told by the team to hold position. The arrival of rain saw both McLarens venture off-road, with Norris being the luckier of the two. Despite the unfortunate slide, some quick thinking meant Piastri could reverse back onto the track, rather than getting his car bogged in the soggy conditions. We can only hope Lance Stroll was taking notes.
China saw Piastri claim his first F1 pole, and instead of caving to the pressure, he drove a faultless race to take his third F1 win. This time, it was Lando’s turn to grab a pen and some paper.
A minor qualifying mistake in Japan put the Australian third on the grid, behind his teammate, but he was challenging Norris for most of the race, at one point asking for positions to be swapped. Contrasted with the previous two seasons, Piastri now appeared to be the faster of the two drivers.
That suspicion was confirmed in Bahrain, Norris botching the most important qualifying run, and Piastri capitalizing to take pole and go on to claim yet another lights-to-flag victory.
Saudi Arabia saw a similar story: Norris dropped the ball in a high-stakes qualifying session, and Piastri again showed that he could handle the heat. The race start in Abu Dhabi was no less impressive, the Australian having Verstappen in front and George Russell behind, both extremely strong and aggressive drivers off the line.
Oscar dispelled any doubts, getting the jump on Verstappen when the lights went out and refusing to yield the position into the first corner. Verstappen’s penalty drew much of the post-race attention, but Piastri’s cool, calm and determined approach was also turning the heads of those who hadn’t yet noticed his quiet rise to prominence.
And so, we have an undeniable trend in Piastri’s favor: a car that many believe is the class of the field, a teammate who’s lacking self-belief, and a dangerous rival in Max Verstappen who’s struggling with a difficult Red Bull. We’ll be watching to see if that trend continues through the Miami weekend.
A Long Wait for Australia
Since the Formula 1 series began 75 years ago, Australia has had 19 drivers, two of whom became world champions. The last to claim the title was Alan Jones in 1980, who also caused some controversy in recent days, claiming that “[Piastri has] all the attributes that you need to be a world champion,” and adding, “at the end of the day, his team-mate [Norris] is weak. Mentally, I think he’s quite a weak person.”
Several other hopes have come and gone in the intervening years. Ironically, Piastri’s manager, Webber, suffered the same inconsistencies as Norris. Webber had an excellent chance of winning the 2010 championship, but several errors, including a crash behind the safety car in Korea, allowed teammate Sebastian Vettel to prevail. Vettel went on to win three more world titles.
Ricciardo replaced Webber at Red Bull and appeared to be Australia’s new shining light, outclassing Sebastian Vettel during his first year at the team. Beating a four-time world champion in your first head-to-head season is quite an achievement. Incidentally, George Russell claimed the same accolade against Hamilton at Mercedes in 2022, the only difference being Hamilton is a seven-time world champion.
Unfortunately, Ricciardo’s light fizzled out, first making an ill-fated move to Renault, then being soundly beaten by Norris at McLaren. Following a brief reprisal at VCARB last year, Ricciardo’s F1 career finally ended. At least, we think it did.
And so, here we are. Webber faltered when the heat was on. Ricciardo beat a four-time world champion and was then shamed by Norris. Australia quickly upped the stakes with Piastri. Will the wait finally be over?
Full disclosure: this columnist is an unashamed Australian who’s eagerly waiting to see if Piastri can finally bring the F1 trophy back to Australian shores. Whatever happens, it’s sure to be an exciting and nail-biting season.
Peter Molloy began following Formula 1 during the 1985 Australian Grand Prix. He cheered for a certain Ayrton Senna, who was driving the same black and gold colors as a toy F1 car that Pete had been given. Pete continued to be a fan of Senna throughout his childhood. Fast forward many moons, and Peter now combines significant journalistic experience with decades of watching F1 to cover the latest on-track and off-track action.