Read time: 12 minutes

For most of the grid, Formula 1’s earlier-than-usual return resulted in a shorter holiday and a few extra days in the gym. For Oscar, it meant swapping the sunshine of his family home in Australia for England’s wet and windy winter. It’s rained every day since he got back, but as he gears up for the sport’s new era, the forecast is looking bright.

As he has every year since stepping up to F1, Oscar spent his winter break back home in Australia with family and friends, soaking up the sunshine and taking in some local sport, including the Ashes. A big cricket fan, he relished the chance to attend the five-match series, although he chuckles that he was less pleased to have watched the one match England won.

Travelling halfway across the world proved a pretty effective way of switching off, even if there were a few reminders. Selfie and autograph requests had dialled up since his last visit - a subtle sign of just how much has changed for him in a short space of time.

“Going back home this summer was a bit different to previous years, a few more people knew who I was,” he says. “But it was nice to go back to Australia and take a bit of a step away from F1 and racing, to spend some time with my family, see friends I haven’t seen in 12 months, and do some things outside of F1.

“It was nice to have a day at the cricket, spending some time with friends, and I went down into the changing room after to speak with the Aussie players, who I’ve been fortunate enough to build a few relationships with.”

Speaking from the factory in Woking, before heading out to Bahrain for Pre-Season Testing, Oscar is well-rested and relaxed. He spent yesterday in meetings with the team and on the simulator, diving deeper into the new regulations and reflecting on the lessons learnt from the recent Shakedown in Barcelona. Today, he’s back in for marketing activities and content capture.

“There's a lot for us to learn and focus on going into the new season,” he says. “It’s been nice to get stuck into.”

Building on his best season to date

Oscar joined McLaren at the start of our upward trajectory, and together, we’ve improved every season since. The team finished fourth in his rookie season, and have won the Constructors’ Championship both years since, while Oscar has placed ninth, fourth, and third in the Drivers’ Championship in his three years to date. Our steady ascent from regular points scorers to consistent podium finishers and race winners has allowed Oscar the space to progress gradually. Last year, he went toe-to-toe with teammate Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, both of whom have more years in F1 behind them, and narrowly missed out on the title. Undoubtedly, he will be better for the experience.

His time away from F1 over the winter allowed him the space to assess the good and the bad objectively and with perspective, while F1’s new era will provide him with a clean slate, as the entire grid starts from zero.

“It was nice to go into the off-season and reflect on last year as a whole,” he says. “The off-season gave me a bit of perspective on how early on in my F1 career I still am. To have had the opportunity to fight for a Championship at this stage, even if I didn't get the result I wanted, is still pretty special.

“If you take a step back and look at how good last year was compared to my first couple of years in F1, if you look at how good the car was, how well the team performed, there was a lot to be really proud of.

“And with this year’s ruleset being so different, it has been a very good avenue to channel the motivation.”

Known for his cool, calm demeanour and seemingly unshakeable composure, Oscar has received widespread acclaim for his ability to handle pressure since he stepped up to Formula 1. In the heat of a title fight, this skill was tested more thoroughly than it had been before, but he was pleased with how he rose to the challenge.

“The areas I was most pleased with were the way I went about racing – my mindset and my mentality – and how those stood up to the test,” he says. “There were maybe a few more tests than we would have expected, but we worked through those together.

“Because of that, I learned a lot about myself as a person. So, even though some of those lessons were pretty tough to take, I came away feeling like I had learned new skills. It was nice to finish the season feeling like I had grown in more ways than simply being a faster race car driver.”

Heading into 2025, Oscar had identified several key areas for improvement, but the priority was to marry up his Qualifying pace with his race-day execution. In his rookie season, he was often stronger on a Saturday, while in his sophomore campaign, he more regularly shone on a Sunday.

That work paid off. He finished the year with the second-best Qualifying record, including a remarkable stretch from Australia to Hungary in which he qualified outside the top three just once - and converted four of the six Poles he claimed into race victories.

And while F1’s machinery has been overhauled, the underlying skills remain the same.

“In terms of improving my performances, I feel like I was able to put everything together more consistently across a weekend, from Qualifying through to the race, and be strong in both, rather than one or the other. And the process behind that doesn’t change regardless of the car and the rules,” he says.

Tackling his first rules revamp

For the first time in his career, Oscar is experiencing a regulations reset, with F1 moving away from the ground-effect cars he has driven in all three of his seasons to date, and towards a new generation of smaller, more agile cars.

Adaptability has long been recognised as one of his key strengths. Oscar has consistently made light work of each step up the racing ladder - from Formula Renault to Formula 3, Formula 2 and ultimately F1 - enjoying standout success in his rookie campaigns, and earning himself a reputation as a fast learner. It’s a quality that should prove invaluable in 2026, as the grid adjusts to a new set of rules.

“There’s been a lot of talk and speculation from everyone, including us as drivers, as to what these new cars would be like, so it was nice to get out on track and discover that it is still a Formula 1 car, and it does still behave as a Formula 1 car should,” Oscar says.

“In terms of the main differences, a car with less downforce and grip is fundamentally harder to drive, and then there is the energy management - we already had an element of this with the previous engines, but it is now more significant.

“For example, we already had a Boost button, but it had a different name, and it was much harder to get yourself in trouble with. There is now much more that’s in the driver’s hands, which can go wrong if not managed very well. It is going to be an interesting point of difference and an opportunity for us all.”

Drivers and teams will depend on one another to navigate the new regulations. Not only to dial in the cars for each session, but also to guide future improvements. Building an effective development programme for these new cars will be crucial for anyone with an ambition to challenge for the Championship, and designers will rely heavily on feedback from drivers and their engineers.

Having seen how quickly the team turned its fortunes around under the previous set of regulations, Oscar is confident they can do it again if required, no matter where they start the season.

“Rule changes are a part of F1, and we’ve known that this has been coming for a long time,” he says. “We’ve always been confident as a team that we are capable of tackling any ruleset that we’re given.

“We proved to ourselves during the last ruleset that even if we start on the back foot, we can turn things around incredibly quickly. We went from being satisfied with getting a point or two to winning the Constructors’ Championship within two seasons. To do that within the same regulations requires a pretty impressive team, so I think that, no matter what rules are thrown at us, we are hopeful of fighting somewhere towards the front.

“But it’s a massive reset for everybody. There will be a lot to learn, and I think you will see a rapid rate of development. Other teams will have more wind tunnel time than we do, so we are doing it the hard way, but that comes with success.

“I would say we are going into the year with an air of confidence, and the knowledge that we can improve things quickly, if we need to, but also the awareness that there will be more teams in the fight this year. We’re prepared to get stuck in to try and stay at the top.”