How Piastri plans to take inspiration from Verstappen to fight for the title in 2025

After his victory in China last week, his third in Formula 1, Oscar piastri confirmed the expectations placed on him. In his third season in the premier class, the Australian is no longer just a promising young talent, no: he is now a serious contender for the world title. In Shanghai, the Melbourne native produced a near-perfect performance, taking pole position and victory, without really being troubled by his teammate, Lando NorrisIn the first two meetings of the season, the Aussie seems to have filled in his small gaps against the Briton, particularly in the qualifying exercise.

Now, with a McLaren MCL39 above the rest in the face of currently powerless competition, Oscar Piastri intends to make the most of the potential of his carAfter the failure in Melbourne and the success in Shanghai, the 23-year-old driver – who will be 24 on April 6 – wants to collect as many points as possible in the upcoming events. And to do this, the Australian wants to take inspiration from one of his rivals: Max Verstappen.

Last year, the Dutchman won the title largely thanks to a thunderous start to the season (seven wins in ten Grands Prix) and had opened up a large gap during the first part of the championship. After the summer break, despite a Red Bull lacking performance and a threatening Lando Norris, the world champion had played the grocer by optimizing each race weekend - even going to the limit and sometimes even beyond - before winning his fourth title in Las Vegas, two Grands Prix from the end of the season.

Piastri wants to optimize McLaren's dominance

For Oscar Piastri, the example of the 2024 season forces him to remain very cautious about his title chances and reminds him that everything can still change in this XXL season with 24 Grands Prix on the program. "I think it's very, very early [to think about the title], definitely. But I think, no matter how long the championship is, you have to optimize the car you have in every race, stressed the Australian during the post-race press conference in ShanghaiWe saw last year that Max Verstappen was able to win the championship by capitalizing on the car he had in the first part of the year. He obviously did a good job during the rest of the year as well, but he widened the gap when he had the ability to do so.

"I think it's also an important thing to do right now, because you never know if someone is going to find speed through an evolution or find something in their way of riding, warned Oscar Piastri, who himself experienced this kind of situation with McLaren last yearThe margins are very thin. So yes, you obviously have to capitalize whenever you can, but I'm certainly not thinking about the championship yet. I'm focusing on one weekend at a time, because that's how you win a championship: by making the most of every weekend."

After two Grands Prix and one Sprint, Oscar Piastri sits in 4th place in the championship, ten points behind the leader, Lando Norris. Without his mistake in the rain in Melbourne, where he was in 2nd place before crashing and finishing 9th, the Australian would have been leading the Drivers' standings. But ifs and butts can change the world... and for Oscar Piastri, a pragmatic person, the conditional is not his thing. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to put the objectives outlined in China into practice at the next triple-header (Japan – Bahrain – Saudi Arabia) which awaits the drivers this April. At the end of this sequence, we will have a clearer idea of ​​the McLaren driver's ability to fight for the championship but also against his teammate.

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