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Oscar has never been short of admirers in Formula 1, but his stock has risen this year with the Australian emerging as a title contender in only his third season. With 10 rounds remaining, he’s already quadrupled his number of wins from last season and grown into one of the most consistent qualifiers on the grid.

“It's been a really good first half of the year for the team,” Oscar says. “The car has been great, and the team has done a fantastic job. It has been really nice to be a part of and a lot of fun.”

Oscar is back at the McLaren factory ahead of F1’s summer break. This visit has a calmer pace than usual, a change from the packed schedule between race weeks. His days here are usually shaped by engineering meetings and simulator sessions or marketing commitments. But as he begins to wind down ahead of the summer break, there’s time to reconnect with colleagues during our now-customary mid-season all-team debrief and summer barbecue.

Many aspects of Oscar’s season have stood out so far this year, from his improved Qualifying performances and greater consistency to his excellent race craft, but perhaps understated is the depth of his relationships with the team. From Team Principal Andrea Stella and his Race Engineer Tom Stallard to the mechanics, the design office, and our Commercial and Communications teams, Oscar has forged a trust and rapport that runs deep.

Each of our improvements in 2025, whether that be the car itself, our consistency or our race management, can be traced back to these connections.

“I think we’ve done a good job of evolving,” Oscar says. “We can always do better, but I think from a setup point of view, in terms of how we get the most out of the car at the track, and from a strategic point of view, in terms of how we manage races and different scenarios, we’ve improved. Ultimately, that becomes easier when you’re given the fastest car, but I think we’ve taken a step up across the board, definitely.  

“The development of the car speaks for itself, with how dominant we’ve been in some races, which have been a joy to be a part of, but even just our management of challenging scenarios where we might have struggled in previously, I think we’ve taken a clear step up.  

“In Melbourne, for example, I think we showed we’d taken a good step with our wet weather approach. But then in Silverstone, I think we showed another step up again in that area, in terms of knowing when to pit and when not to pit and how to manage a wet weather situation. We’ve always been good at it, but it’s important to consistently improve.” 

These connections run through the team and include Oscar and Lando’s relationship as teammates, which has regularly been cited as key. CEO Zak Brown recently praised the “communication, trust, and respect” they have for one another.  

“Our relationship hasn’t really changed,” Oscar says. “The competitive environment is quite different this year, yes, but our relationship is pretty much the same. The way we work together, how we try and help the team, and what we want from the car, it is all the same.

“I think we’re both very conscious that we want to have success with this team for a long time. That is not lost on either of us. Healthy competition is important, of course, but it is important to keep the team united, and I think we both have that in the back of our minds.”

 

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Heading into the summer break, Oscar leads the Drivers’ Championship by nine points, having picked up six wins, 12 podiums and four Poles.

Now in his third F1 season, Oscar has built a reputation as one of the sport’s calmest characters, and when asked, says he feels he’s dealt with the weight of a title challenge well so far. However, he cautions that the Championship picture will take on greater weight in the final 10 races.

“I would say I’ve handled it well, but this has been the part of the year when the pressure isn’t really on in the Championship fight,” he says. “Obviously, you don’t want to give away points, but it has been far too early to be thinking of the season in that way. At this stage, you just want to go into the weekend trying to get the most out of it as you can, rather than thinking of the Championship overall.

“So yes, I think I’ve handled it well, but I haven’t concentrated on it much. The pressure is only going to increase from here. When we get to the latter part of the year, that is when the pressure will ramp up.”  

Although this is Oscar’s first chance at fighting for the Championship in F1, he was a regular challenger for titles in his junior career and remains the only driver to win Formula Renault, Formula 3 and Formula 2 in successive seasons.  

While none of those campaigns carried the same intensity as a Formula 1 title challenge, Oscar believes there are lessons he learnt during those seasons that he has and will be able to call upon.  

“I won all three in different ways,” he explains. “In Formula Renault, I was quick but made quite a few mistakes. In F3, my ultimate pace wasn’t as good, but I was consistently there and in the fight. In F2, I think that was the best of the three in how I combined pace with consistency.  

“What that has taught me is that there is no one single way to win a Championship. Obviously, you want to be as fast as you can as often as possible, but knowing when to pick your moments and take risks is important.”  

Oscar has delivered several standout performances this season, but he namechecks four in particular. Bahrain and Spain are the obvious picks – weekends where the Australian was almost flawless. 

What was particularly impressive about his victory in Spain was his reaction to losing the lead to Max Verstappen at the start. Confident in the pace of the MCL39, the Australian bided his time before reclaiming first from the Red Bull driver after his second pit stop.

It was in stark contrast to last year’s Spanish Grand Prix, where he finished seventh after starting from 10th. While that result wasn’t reflective of our pace at the time, it does highlight the team’s improved consistency and the MCL39’s capability as an all-rounder.

“I think we have been strong pretty much at every circuit in every condition, and that gives you a lot of confidence as a driver. That has been a real strength of ours. The competition has been very close to us in pretty much every single race – with a couple of exceptions – but it has often been a different opponent each weekend.

“It has been a lot of fun and gives you a lot of confidence to go into a weekend and know you should be fighting for a win, at least.”

Spain was Oscar’s fifth win of the year, converted via his fourth Pole. It was also a record-equalling eighth consecutive podium - only Ayrton Senna (1988) and Lewis Hamilton (2007) have matched that feat for McLaren - a run that started with his win in China, following a “confidence-boosting” first F1 Pole. 

“The result I was probably the most excited by was my first Pole of the year in China,” he says. “To achieve that so early on in the season was good - just to get the monkey off my back in some ways. It was a really nice achievement, and it has been good to follow it up with more Pole positions.  

“Qualifying was an area last season that wasn’t as strong for me, so to turn that around this year has been very nice - it ultimately makes races easier. Being able to consistently perform well in Qualifying has made a pretty big difference. 

“I think that was important, but there have been other moments as well. It was important, but I also don’t think it was the reason behind the run of form afterwards. It was just good to relieve that pressure and gave me a nice confidence boost.”

The other two weekends he referenced were in Saudi Arabia and Miami. The former was pure box office, as he followed up his win in Bahrain – arguably his most complete round in F1 to date – with a scrappier, more dogged victory from second.  

Miami followed a similar script. Starting fourth, Oscar cut through the pack at the start to emerge in Max Verstappen’s rear-view mirror. From here, he set about chasing down the Dutchman, his relentless pressure forcing a rare mistake from the Red Bull driver, which allowed Oscar through.

 

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“The win in Saudi Arabia wasn’t my overall strongest weekend of the year, but I had to fight for it a lot,” Oscar said. “I couldn’t rely purely on being quick, I had to use other strengths, so that was an important win for me to have pulled off. Then in Miami, it was just about keeping it in my mind that anything could happen.”

Between them, those four different types of performance provide a blueprint for Oscar to follow in the second half of the season, when the grid returns from the summer break at next weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.  

“It is about continuing to do what I am doing,” Oscar says. “What I am most proud of is that even on the weekends when I feel that everything hasn’t come together, it has still often been enough to fight for the win, and that is encouraging. I just want us to keep doing the same things as a team and to try and find even more performance.”