Widely recognised as one of Formula 1’s coolest characters, even Oscar’s ability to handle pressure was tested during last year’s Constructors’ title challenge, and that’s no bad thing. “Not to the kind of ultimate level,” he assures, but just the right amount for him to learn from, and that’s the sweet spot.  

Since stepping up to F1, Oscar has gained a lot of experience in a short space of time. He’s experienced fighting at the back, the front, and everything in between, with McLaren’s growth during his two seasons springboarding him into the Drivers’ Championship conversation heading into year three.  

“That’s certainly what I’m hoping to go and fight for,” he says. “It depends on how we start the season and how the car is through the year. Last year, it took us a few races to find our feet. Hopefully, we can be a little bit better from the beginning of this season.  

“Definitely, I’m going in with the hope and ambition to fight for the Drivers’ title and to help the team retain the Constructors’ title. With the season we’ve just had, it would be silly to aim for anything less – certainly to prepare for anything less - but we’ll see how we come out of the gates and reassess from there.”  

Dealing with pressure

Speaking from one of the hospitality suites at the McLaren factory ahead of a day on the simulator and in engineering briefings, Oscar is relaxed and well-rested, having spent more than a month at home in Australia following the conclusion of the 2024 campaign.   

The 23-year-old enjoyed a superb sophomore season - the strongest from a second-year driver in F1 since Charles Leclerc in 2019 - in which he took his first two race wins and notched a further six podiums, as McLaren reclaimed the Constructors’ Championship for the first time in 26 years. He also became just the fourth driver in history to complete every racing lap of an F1 season.  

McLaren’s Championship charge and Oscar’s rise up the standings gave him insight into an F1 title fight without having the expectation put on him to win it.  

“There were some pretty high-pressure races last season – Baku is the immediate one that springs to mind, so I think it [my ability to handle pressure] was definitely put to the test at certain points last year. I was happy in certain scenarios, but there were definitely things to learn from others.  

“That’s where gaining experience is useful. You have to learn from these situations and work out what you’re going to do better and differently next time. In general, I was pretty happy with how I dealt with some pretty high-pressure situations.” 

Fighting with the frontrunners

Oscar was among seven different Grand Prix winners – the most since 2012 – during a hugely competitive campaign in which he proved himself to be among the sport’s strongest overtakers.  

Throughout his junior career, Oscar regularly wowed fans with his ability to scythe through a field, most notably in his Formula 3 season, where issues with his DRS in Qualifying often left him starting from further back. He showed flashes of this ability to take on and win duels in 2023, but with a faster car beneath him in 2024, Oscar’s race craft was given more chances to shine.  

Pulling off memorable moves on Charles Leclerc in Azerbaijan, Lewis Hamilton in Silverstone, Carlos Sainz in Austria, and George Russell in Singapore – to name just a few - Oscar proved he wasn’t afraid to get his elbows out and battle against the sport’s best. 

“It is always a nice confidence booster when you come out on top, because you are racing against the best of the best, but you can’t get caught up in it,” he says. “You can’t just beat them once and say ‘that was good, I beat a World Champion.’ You have to do that consistently and treat them as any other driver. 

“You have to forget about the names, the history, the achievements. It’s just another person you’re trying to beat. They’re still human. They will race slightly differently and are incredibly good at what they do, but no one is perfect. What you learn as you race against the guys at the front is that they’re the same as anybody else. They have things they’re really strong at, but they also have things they’re good at, but maybe not quite as strong.” 

While sensational to watch, Oscar’s preference would be to start from the front without the need to get involved in so many battles. He believes that, on too many occasions in 2024, he left himself with too much to do on a Sunday. Although he Qualified in second on six occasions in 2024 and only missed out on Q3 once, Oscar is still chasing a maiden Grand Prix Pole – an achievement he’s determined to tick off in 2025.  

Throughout his junior career and time in F1 to date, Oscar has shown himself to be a quick learner and is confident that he’ll soon see his work in this department bear fruit.

“It’s about how you get that last little bit out of yourself and the car,” he says. “You want to find that sweet spot where you are right on the limit. In some sessions, I was a bit under that, and in others, I was overcompensating. It’s about getting myself into that window. In the Qualifying sessions where my position was good, I was in that zone. I need to find that last little bit to be able to do it every weekend.” 

Honing his craft 

Like every driver on the grid, Oscar wants to become more consistent. It’s another area of his arsenal he was often praised for during his junior career,  but he feels that he’s not yet hit the levels he expects of himself in this area. Considering his results to date, that view speaks more to the high standards he sets himself than his actual performances.  

“Last year, for the most part, was a good step up from my rookie season, but I still need to improve,” he says. “I think my good weekends were very strong, but it is about getting to a place where all of my weekends look like that. That’s the big key. There are some specific areas I want to focus on to go faster, but it’s mostly about trying to be at the top of my game, consistently.  

“That is what a lot of my meetings have been about in pre-season. How do we extract the best from me? What does that look like in my life, in general? What does it look like when I’m at the track? What does it look like when I'm in the car? What things enable me to be at my best? And what things hinder me? Those are the topics we’ve been discussing, and I think we’ve got some very good ideas of where we can improve, of what worked well and what didn’t.” 

Not that he’ll be sharing what those are. “That’s between me and the team,” he smiles.  

Improvements will naturally come from experience and learning where the limit is, but only if you’re willing to put the work in, he says - no matter how many races you’ve started or laps you’ve completed.  

“The experience helps, but you have to put the work in to learn from it,” he says. “The improvement comes more from the actual hard work and training. You don’t just magically get better and faster because you’ve done it for longer. If you don't learn from the lessons, from your mistakes, you’ll just keep doing the same thing - whether you've been in the sport for six months or 10 years.”

Looking back through the greatest drivers in history, that’s what has separated the good from the great. It isn’t enough to just be fast - certainly not now. Given the complexities of modern-day F1, drivers now need to be the complete package.  

Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna led the charge, revolutionising F1 as it became impossible to turn up on a Sunday and expect your speed alone to be enough. Drivers now need to be students of the sport. Not necessarily in understanding the data, but in examining the areas where they can be better, whether that’s a mistake they made or a corner they could take slightly differently.  

In that sense, Oscar is very much the modern F1 driver.  

“Ultimately, you have to be incredibly fast, but it’s all of the details around that, which help make you faster. Working closely with the engineers and getting the right setup, spending time in the sim refining what you do, staying out of trouble, being able to race against people better, knowing when to do certain things and when not to, being under pressure – there are a lot of different things.  

“When the pressure isn’t on, it’s easy to look great, but when the pressure is really on, and the consequences are much bigger, that is when you see the cream rise to the top.”   

Building on his relationship with the team 

Speak with anyone in the team and they’ll position Oscar in that elite category and reference his work behind the scenes, his ability to convey his thoughts and the detail of his feedback.  

The relationships he’s built within the team will again prove key in 2025, as we look to use the knowledge gained from McLaren’s first title fight in a decade to go again this year. For the first time in a long while, both Championships are on the agenda and with that expectation, the pressure will rise.  

The art of the surprise has gone now, for the team and for Oscar. Everyone knows what the Australian star is capable of and expects our 2025 car to be competitive again. Starting the season among the favourites is a different prospect entirely – especially in what is likely to be another hugely competitive campaign.  

Testing done and dusted. Melbourne here we come pic.twitter.com/nphHAeP7yi

— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) February 28, 2025

Although we won the Constructors’ Championship, the team at the top of the timing charts fluctuated massively through the season and each will head into 2025 believing they’re title contenders. 

“It will be just as tight this year, if not even tighter” he says. “I think there will be quite a big fight between the top four teams. With the rules staying the same, it gets harder to put performance on the car, so I think spectators are in for an exciting year – for the teams, we’re probably in for a nervous year. Ultimately, that's a good thing. 

“Now that we're in the position we are, as the reigning Constructors’ Champions, the focus is on trying to repeat that.”