Why Oscar Piastri expects to keep Lando Norris on his toes again as he reflects on ‘tough’ lessons of 2025

Oscar Piastri cut a very relaxed figure as he strolled into the room that housed our interview set-up at the McLaren Technology Centre. The Australian had arrived in town earlier in the week for a day in the simulator with his engineers. Now he was back for a content day – and we were one of his stops.

As a baseline, Piastri’s mood is always friendly and relaxed but that was tested last year when he saw his 34-point lead in the championship evaporate as his McLaren team mate Lando Norris fought back to win his maiden F1 title and become Formula 1’s 35th championship. The winter break – or summer break for him as he headed back to his native Australia – was very welcome.

On returning to the day job, Piastri looks like he’s had a full reset and is ready to go again. In reflecting on last year, in what was only his third F1 campaign, he’s been able to take plenty of positives – as well as lessons to make him a more potent force in 2026.

“For me, it was important to just have some time to chill out and probably not think about racing for a couple of weeks, which was nice,” says Piastri, who won seven Grands Prix last year. “The reflections come naturally on the previous season and I think when you take a step back from being in the thick of it, especially at the end of the season, it was nice to look back on all the positive moments that happened.

“Obviously, there was some tougher moments to look back on as well, but I think when you remove yourself from that fierce competition and you’ve got some time to look back on it afterwards, it’s always easier to see the positive moments, which was nice to reflect back on. And then it’s been focusing onto this year because it comes around very quick and obviously we’ve got a lot to learn for this year with a lot of new changes [to the rules]. So it was a nice balance of a bit of everything.”

For two-thirds of 2025, Piastri looked like he was on his way to becoming champion. He headed into the summer break on a run of 15 podiums in 16 events. But a run of six rounds without a podium, as a couple of mistakes crept in, put him on the backfoot and he ultimately lost too much ground to recover.

Elite athletes often say that you learn more from losing than winning – and you get the sense that rather than getting down about last year’s defeat, Piastri is focusing on the fact last year was a big step up in terms of performance relative to the previous campaign – and thus he’s still in the right trajectory to being a champion in the future. At just 24, he has time on his side.

“There’s definitely a lot of tough lessons you learn when things aren’t going the way you want,” he says. “I’m always someone that tries to take what I can from any situation, regardless of how good or bad it’s been.

“It was important to look back on, definitely and again there was a lot of positive moments and just positive attributes from last season that I really want to take into this season. Just the step up in my performance from 2024 to 2025 was really nice to see and be able to achieve.

“The kind of way we can go about trying to achieve that level of success again, we’ve kind of got a bit of a blueprint for it now. And while 2026 has got some very different key aspects you need to get right, I think the way of going about it and the way you can use your time and your energy is something that you can look back on the past for.”

Looking ahead to F1’s new season

The 2026-spec Formula 1 car is a very different beast, with the chassis narrower and shorter and featuring active aero with a power unit in the back that now has a 50-50 power split between fuel and electric.

There’s a significant amount more for a driver to do, too, through the boost, overtake and recharge functions. It’s a huge challenge but one that excites Piastri, as does the chance to go up against his team mate Norris, whom he gets on with very well, once again.

“Obviously, we don’t know what our car is going to be like, and that’s the first piece of the puzzle that you need to be strong,” he says. “So, we’ll see how that works. But it was a really fun challenge last year.

“There was definitely a point that was probably more challenging than fun but, when you look back on it, the opportunity that both of us had to fight for a championship – and I say this being on the wrong end of the end result – it was an awesome year to be part of that. Those are the kind of moments and seasons that you live for in sports.

“To be part of that, to have that opportunity, and kind of see the avenues where I did well, and see the avenues where I can improve, that’s good fun. We kept each other on our toes the whole year, and I’m sure that’s going to continue for as long as we’re team mates.”

Though there have been a few bumpy moments between Piastri and Norris since they became team mates in 2023, the overarching theme has been one of impressive unity and team work that first helped McLaren become a frontrunner once more, then led to the team winning the Teams’ Championship back-to-back in the last couple of campaigns.

That collaboration will be particularly key this year given there is so much to learn about the new cars and that, not only will the pecking order be tricky to determine early doors, but there is expected to be a mighty development race to the point where teams that start the year strongly may not be the ones who end the season as the strongest.

“What was really encouraging for both of us and for the whole team more so was that even when we were fighting for a championship, or a Drivers’ Championship, the way we worked together was still the same,” says Piastri.

“There were certain points through the year where it wasn’t just us two fighting for wins. We had some fellow competitors joining the fight, and ultimately, we want to make it a battle between us two as much as we can.

“Obviously, there’s 20 other guys on the grid that are trying to stop that but I think with a massive rule change like this, the most important thing is to get the level of the team up as much as you can, as quickly as you can.

“We demonstrated that when I joined the team in 2023. The car wasn’t great at the start. I’m not saying Lando and I rebuilt the whole car at all, but I think just the way we worked together, and put our egos to one side, and tried to focus on making the car quick so we could then fight for our results that we wanted – I think we’ve already proven we can do that.

“So, if we have to do it again, then we know what that looks like.”