He has the face of a child and the nutritional preferences to match, but nobody doubts Oscar Piastri deserves his place at the Formula One grown-ups’ table. The 23-year-old helped McLaren to the constructors’ championship with two race victories last year, and has emerged as a genuine contender for the driver’s crown in 2025.
Days before this week’s first race of the season in Melbourne, the chocolate milk-loving, chicken parmigiana-ordering Victorian isn’t tempering expectations. “It’s hard to not be confident when you’ve got the championship-winning team around you,” Piastri said at his latest sponsor’s engagement on Wednesday evening, for McLaren partner Airwallex.
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“This year, I think we’re as confident as we have been since I’ve joined the team, that we can start the year off on a good note. Yeah, a lot of things have changed since last year, but hopefully the success can still be the same.”
Piastri joined McLaren in 2023, after a contractual stand-off with former team Alpine, amid speculation he might also race for Williams or Aston Martin. At the stage, the Australian – a highly sought-after but unproven former Formula 2 champion – found himself caught in Formula One’s driver merry-go-round.
The outlook in 2025 is very different. The lineup at McLaren, of driver’s championship runner-up Lando Norris and Piastri, is one of only two in Formula One to remain unchanged. It has given Piastri a foundation on which to build on two promising but imperfect campaigns.
“I ended my first season pretty happy, but with some things I still needed to improve, and some gaps as a driver. I feel like I ended last season with all the tools I needed as a driver, I just didn’t quite get it all together as much as I hoped for,” he said.
“This year I’m going into the season knowing that my best last year was good enough to be the best on the grid. It’s now just about trying to put that in place every single time I’m out on track.”
Piastri struggled for much of last year in qualifying. He averaged a starting position of 5.42, and didn’t qualify better than fifth in the first six rounds. In that sixth race of the season, in Miami, his team-mate won his first Grand Prix, one of four victories in 2024 that secured Norris’ place as McLaren’s main challenger to Red Bull’s dominant Max Verstappen.
But Piastri did enough in the middle part of the season to challenge the pecking order at McLaren, even as he struggled to secure a place on the podium towards the season’s end. Whatever McLaren chief executive Zak Brown is thinking going into 2025, the Australian said “we’re starting from zero” and that “everyone’s on an even playing field”.
Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes are the clear favourites for Formula One honours in 2025, but the driver’s title is a toss-up. “There’s probably eight drivers that can realistically achieve that this year,” Piastri said. “Normally it’s one or two or maybe three, so I think we’re in for an exciting season.”
It begins in Melbourne, which has returned to the start of the schedule this year, and where a relaxed, smiling Piastri has exuded calm in his hometown. He has met relentless sponsor’s obligations this week, from a burger chain, to a whiskey brand, to a room full of clients of another McLaren sponsor.
Australia is used to following the world’s most popular brand of motorsport through its most flamboyant character, Daniel Ricciardo. In his later years, the former Red Bull star appeared to be more comfortable in front of the camera than behind the wheel. Piastri is less gregarious, but appears no less comfortable in the spotlight and with the pressures of F1 favouritism. “I enjoy being the hunted,” he said. “It normally means you’re doing something right if you’re in that spot.”
Piastri has spent his off-season training among cyclists, swimmers and athletes at the Victorian Institute of Sport, which is currently within the Albert Park precinct taken over by the Grand Prix carnival. (The head of the institute, former Olympian Nicole Livingstone, joked on Wednesday that Piastri “has been given the keys”.) The Brighton boy has been ferried around the city by his three younger sisters Hattie, Edie and Mae, who each now have their own driving licences.
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Despite the close bonds, his family was in the dark about the single biggest vote of confidence the Formula One industry could give to Piastri. McLaren had already signed the Australian until the end of next season, but a new “multi-year” contract extension was announced this week. Piastri revealed he forgot to tell his mother. “She wouldn’t have been expecting it, because we signed up for another two seasons anyway,” he said. “So it was a nice morning surprise.”
While Piastri has appeared composed this week, there are some things even he cannot control. The forecast for qualifying on Saturday is for temperatures in the mid-30s, before a high likelihood of rain on Sunday.
“If it does rain, it’ll throw a real spanner in the works, because I think Friday and Saturday are going to be dry,” Piastri said. “Sunday, being the first time driving in the rain in the race, definitely spices things up. So I think no matter which way you look at it, it’s going to be a pretty exciting weekend.”
