Tag: oscar piastri

F1 pit stop: …and the winner is…

On By ChristofferIn F1, News1 Comment

…Lando Norris! In the end by a margin of two points on Max Verstappen, and 13 on his team mate Oscar Piastri. In my before-last F1 update back in June that you’ll find here, yours truly wrote: “I would claim we’re well beyond it (referring to halfway into the season, my remark) in terms of seeing where the season is heading – and the color of that is a solid orange. That’s however not the orange of Max Verstappen and the Netherlands we’ve gotten used to, but rather the papaya orange of McLaren!

Given the double Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles McLaren took this year, I guess I could say I was right, but of course, what I meant at the time was that McLaren would dominate the rest of the season as they had the first part. In my defence, I think few would have contested my statement back then. Only a few weeks later however, Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner was sacked, and the summer thereafter became somewhat of a turning point, making the fight for the F1 Drivers’ title 2025 the most exciting it’s been since 2010, when Sebastian Vettel clinched it as one of four contenders in the last race of the season, also in Abu Dhabi.

Until the end of August this year, McLaren had won 12 of the 15 races, split 7-5 in Oscar Piastri’s favour over Lando Norris. Of the remaining three, Max Verstappen had won two, and George Russell one. Piastri was at the time in a relatively comfortable Championship lead, with Lando Norris a solid second. Verstappen at most was all of 104 points behind Piastri. It all looked like a McLaren internal fight for both world titles, with not even Max Verstappen being close.

Up until and including the Dutch GP in August, it was all very papaya orange!

From September onwards we had another nine races, including the last race of the season today in Abu Dhabi. George Russell won his second race of the season in this period, but that’s the only similarity with the first 2/3 of the season. Because of the remaining eight, Oscar Piastri has won none, Lando Norris has won two, and Max Verstappen no less than six. Going into today’s race, the three of them thus all had the chance to win the Drivers’ title, something that hasn’t happened in years.

Digging into this a bit closer and starting with Max and Red Bull, it’s no doubt true that he’s done far better in the last part of the season, meaning more or less since the departure of Christian Horner. The conclusion has to be that letting go of Horner was the right move, as it’s pretty clear the team does quite well without him. However, all of it is neither on the back of Horner, nor of Max’s doing either. McLaren has combined mistakes with a bit of bad luck since the summer, helping Max unexpectedly get a renewed chance at the title. And with Max, that’s really all he needs.

It started in Austin, where none of the McLarens finished the sprint race, which Verstappen won. In Las Vegas, both papaya cars were disqualified for skid wear (referring to too much wear on the plank running below the car, meaning it could run lower than allowed by regulation). Again, Verstappen won the race. And as late as last week in Qatar, when Norris was supposed to tie it all up, for some inexplicable reason, McLaren was the only team not to pit in a safety car phase early in the race, leaving both Piastri and Norris in complete limbo with some hilarious radio conversations between the drivers and the team we all could listen to taking place. Who won the race? You guessed it.

Max didn’t need much to be back in the game when McLaren ran into problems.

This isn’t meant to take anything away from Max Verstappen though. Until the end of the season, everyone would agree that McLaren had the better car, but in spite of that, as soon as there was a glimmer of hope, Max stepped it up and grasped it, pulling what feels like 130% out of the McLaren car in a way only he knows the secret of. It didn’t take him all the way but boy was it close, and as many that agree that McLaren had the better car would probably also agree that Max Verstappen is still the best driver.

It’s worth looking at bit closer at Oscar Piastri as well, who after winning seven races in the first part of the season, and having been on the podium in 13 of the first 15 races, has only been so three times since the summer. F1 veteran Martin Brundle named five reasons for this turnaround for the worst, being head, luck, setup, tracks, and Norris. I won’t go through all of them and it’s no doubt a mix of everything, also including team orders and tactics, which Brundle didn’t name. Piastri is a very good soldier, never contesting team orders and playing it all by the book. It pains me to say so, but that’s not exactly the traits of a world champion (did anyone mention Max?).

Behind McLaren and Red Bull, Mercedes-AMG has emerged as a solid third, even beating Red Bull in the teams’ classification. Much of this is thanks to Kimi Antonelli’s fantastic driving in his first season, scoring no less than three podiums and 150 points (that’s three podiums and 117 points more than Red Bull’s second driver Yuki Tsunoda…). That’s not bad for a 19-year old, and although it’s only less than half the points his teammate George Russell scored, the pair is more complementary than many would have thought.

19 years old and doing a splendid job in his first season. A coming world champion?

In comparison, what happens down in Maranello has us all scratching our heads, especially when it comes to Lewis Hamilton. How can it be that a seven-time world champion doesn’t manage it beyond Q1 in the last two qualifiers when his teammate Charles Leclerc does so with a margin? Plenty of theories are going around, essentially boiling down to Lewis at one end complaining and calling his first season at Ferrari a nightmare, and others pointing out that as a 40-year old driver with seven world titles, you should perhaps be able to make it beyond Q1, and if you don’t, that it’s perhaps time to say arrividerci.

I would tend to agree and also point out that it would be good for Lewis to change his tune before the team loses confidence in him as well. Ferrari is a Latin outfit which Seb Vettel and especially Schumi learnt to handle and exploit fully, but which Lewis seems to struggle with. That’s a bad direction to go in, especially when you’re 40 years old and cash a very big cheque. Before the season, I would definitely have put the Ferrari duo ahead of Russell and Antonelli at Mercedes, again showing that my predictive powers are about as reliable as worn-down Range Rover.

The other teams are all miles from the leading four, but it’s worth mentioning Williams who for many years were at the very back of the field but who now regularly score points with the well-functioning duo Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz. They both scored a similar amount of points (Albon at 73, Sainz at 64), with Carlos notably finishing third in the before-last race this season in Qatar. That’s nice to see, although it’s difficult to see the team moving further up the ranks.

Things are going well at Williams, and Albon and Sainz have emerged as a great duo.

As we close the books on 2025, we do so with Lando Norris as brand new world champion and McLaren thus taking the double. Seen over the full season, I would say it’s well deserved, as he’s been more constant than Oscar Piastri over the full season, and McLaren has clearly been the best team. Max Verstappen finishing second, only two points behind, is no doubt a disappointment for him, but far more than he could have hoped for a few weeks ago. Oscar Piastri’s disappointment is no doubt bigger, having basically had it all in his own hands back in September.

Of course, Piastri will have a new chance next year, as there is little doubt McLaren will be among the top teams then as well. It’s difficult to say more though, since the 2026 season will see a total revamp of the cars, with major changes notably to the power unit, chassis and aerodynamic rules. More on that next year before we start off the season 2026, but even as we conclude 2025, we know that it will be a tall order for the new cars in the new year to beat the excitement of the 2025 season!

F1 pit stop: buckle up!

On By ChristofferIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

The F1 circus is currently on a few weeks’ break before attacking the five last races of the season, starting in Mexico for round 20 on Oct 27, and then concluding in Abu Dhabi on Dec 8. In between are the races in Sao Paolo, Las Vegas and Qatar. As we all take a breather, let’s therefore check in on what’s happened over the last races since my latest update in early June. Because boy has there been some action!

As you may remember, I called the post back in June “Could it be?”, alluding to the fact that it looked like both Ferrari and McLaren had come closer to Red Bull and maybe, just maybe, could bring some excitement to the second half of the season. Well, for once it seems I was right, but little did I think things were about to change so drastically. And I should have added Mercedes to the list of possbiel contenders as well, although their improvement didn’t become apparent until slightly later. As I write this in the first week of October, Red Bull has lost the lead in the constructor standings to McLaren and have Ferrari breathing down their neck. What happened?

No other team has found more speed than McLaren in the second half of the season

There have been 10 races since Monaco at the end of May, and Verstappen, having finished 6th in Monaco, showed that he can still drive by subsequently winning both in Canada and Spain. But in the eight races since Spain, he hasn’t won a single one – yep, you read that right. I might add that Sergio “Checo” Perez hasn’t won any of those eight either, which is perhaps no big surprise, but to be fair, also makes clear that this has more to do with the car then the drivers. Or rather, it has more to do with the other cars in red, orange and silver.

The last eight races have split pretty evenly between McLaren (four victories) Mercedes and (three), with Ferrari and Leclerc picking up the win at home in Monza in front of more than 300.000 jubilant Tifosis, and guaranteeing Leclerc’s legend status in Italy for many years to come (and given the Monegasque Leclerc also won his home GP for the first time this year, he will certainly be happy with the 2024 season!). If you look beyond first place though, it becomes pretty clear that although all three teams have come much closer to Red Bull’s speed, improvements are most notable at McLaren and within the team, things are now much more even between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

It’s probably debatable if Monza or Monaco was Leclerc’s sweetest win…

This is Piastri’s second F1 season and he quickly showed he deserves his McLaren seat, managing to score two podiums and a sprint victory in his first season 2023. In the first part of this year however, Lando Norris had the lead internally at McLaren. But in the last races since Monaco, Piastri has been on seven podiums and won two races, in Hungary and Azerbaijan. Norris hasn’t done too badly either and is firmly in second place in the drivers’ standings, but to have a realistic chance at he title, he would have needed some of Piastri’s results in the last races.

McLaren is thus in great shape with a car that performs well on most type of tracks. And both Mercedes and Ferrari have found more speed than they had earlier in the season. But with that said, it’s not like Red Bull have broken down and Verstappen has taken a leave. Max is still there, he’s still fast and even though he doesn’t win, he’s still regularly on the podium. Right now however, he’s not really faster than the other six drivers in the top teams. But with a lead of over 50 points going into the last five races of the season, it’s most probable that he will clinch the title this year as well.

For the constructors’ title however, things look a bit different. With Checo Perez being nowhere in terms of speed or podiums, Red Bull have lost the lead to McLaren, and as things look right now, the team from Woking in the UK can be expected to hold on to that lead. And Max had better continue to perform, because otherwise Red Bull could end up behind Ferrari as well, which currently trails it by only 34 points. For a team as spoiled as Red Bull, that would be nothing short of catastrophic.

This is not where Max is used to parking…

I’ll dive into all the driver changes for next season in a future post, as there’s plenty to cover. For now however, we need to address the recent mid-season switch at RB, Red Bull’s junior team, where Daniel Ricciardo has been replaced by Liam Lawson. Lawson is already a familiar face, having stepped in for Ricciardo during several races. It’s no secret that Ricciardo’s performance has been declining over the past few years across different teams, so it’s not very surprising that this likely marks the end of his F1 career. Bringing in a younger talent like 22-year old Lawson aligns with Red Bull’s long-term strategy, though Red Bull still need to find a replacement for Checo Pérez, most probably already for next season.

There we are – five races to go, and at least a constructor championship title to fight for with Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari all in contention. And even though it seems clear that Verstappen will take the driver’s title, Lando Norris most probably hasn’t given up yet. Neither has Oscar Piastri, who would love to score more points than Norris this season. And wouldn’t it be a nice conclusion for Carlos Sainz to win a race for Ferrari before his time with the team ends? And for Lewis to do the same at Mercedes? It’s pretty certain there won’t be any lack of excitement in the last part of the 2024 season – buckle up!

F1 pit stop: could it be?

On By ChristofferIn F1, News3 Comments

We’re around a third into the 2024 F1 season and until a couple of races ago, it did look like it would again be a very one-sided affair, with Max in his Red Bull having claimed all pole positions so far, winning 5 races, and looking unstoppable on the way to his fourth consecutive world championship title. 

And then came Emilia Romagna in Italy, which Verstappen did win but not quite like before, where Max wasn’t even close to the podium. Ever so slowly a bit of excitement has returned – what has happened? To recap for those who may have gotten tired of following this every other week (you have my sympathy), it’s really two teams that have made notable progress and have gotten a bit too close to comfort for Red Bull. 

If they fired him to make him faster, it worked

The first one is Ferrari, currently second in the championship and the team that so far had been closest to Red Bull. And with two great drivers, it’s both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc who at least to some extent give Verstappen a run for the money. Sainz’s improving results showed a strong correlation with Ferrari’s decision to sack him, replacing him with Lewis Hamilton, in 2025 and could perhaps be seen as his pride having been hurt. Personally, I think it’s more a case of a great driver in an improved car. 

Leclerc’s results seem to validate that theory and at no time more so than last week in Monaco when he won his home race for the first time, having previously not even been on the podium in the Principality. Leclerc is one of a few thousand Monegasques so this was also the first time a native won the very special Monaco race, and did so in quite a dominant way. 

The second team that has come closer to Red Bull, perhaps even more so than Ferrari, is of course McLaren. Here Lando Norris has led the charge and nowhere more so than in Miami where he won his first race of the season, his fourth podium for the season. Oscar Piastri is also finding more speed in his car, with a first podium finish in Monaco where he was second. 

I’m willing to bet this wasn’t the lsat time we see Lando on P1

So what about Red Bull? Well, when Norris won in Miami in the first days of May, Max finished second and Perez fourth. And then in Monaco, Verstappen wasn’t on pole for the first time this year, starting six. Perez, also a first for this year, was however eliminated in Q1, starting impossibly far back. Of course Monaco is a very special race and not really indicative of things to come, but the team confessed to the car having a problem when driven on curbs which obviously penalized lap times, and Max also hit a wall in qualifying, ruining his chances of starting higher up. For a driver never making mistakes, that’s telling.

I may be grasping for straws here and of course Red Bull is still the leading team this season with a very healthy lead both in the team and driver rankings. The most likely scenario is no doubt still that Max and Red Bull win both titles. But Perez’ renewed performance dip is worrying, and there’s little doubt that Verstappen feels both McLaren and Ferrari breathing down his neck more than in the first part of the season. In that sense, the coming races will be very interesting, especially Barcelona on 23 June, since that is the next real driving course.

It’s all hugs and smiles for now – hopefully it’ll stay that way

Further down the field, not much has changed. Unfortunately Mercedes hasn’t found the same speed as Ferrari and McLaren, and now rank clearly behind the two. Further down, Alonso does what he can in the Aston Martin car, with the team is a solid fifth in the championship. Even Stroll manages to score a few points here and there, knowing that Aston Martin no doubt has the most unbalanced driver line-up of all…). As for the rest of the teams, there really isn’t much to mention.

We’ll see over the next races how this pans out. Can Max preserve his lead and for the team’s sake, can Perez find his speed again? Will Leclerc be able to build on Monaco and keep that competitiveness over the coming races? Or will Lando Norries be the hungrier one, extending his nice podium run? I guess the season does have some excitement in it, after all!

PS. Make sure you don’t miss the documentary “Senna” on Netflix, a nice portrait of the man who was perhaps the greatest of them all. It also serves as a reminder of how very different the F1 sport was 30 years ago. Not to take anything away from the drivers nowadays, but the level of courage of those guys… You’ll see what I mean if you watch it!