Oscar Piastri proud to find form again after “pretty painful” F1 title run-in

Oscar Piastri was pleased to re-find his form after a “pretty painful” stretch of races.

Piastri’s second-place finish at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix wasn’t enough to secure the 2025 F1 title.

The Australian’s poor run of results following his victory at the Dutch Grand Prix ultimately saw him drop to third in the standings behind teammate Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Piastri led the championship for much of the season, opening up a 34-point lead over Norris after Zandvoort. 

However, a poor run of races, starting with his DNF in Baku, saw his title charge falter.

After that, Piastri struggled for pace in Austin, Mexico, and Brazil, finishing fifth on three consecutive occasions.

To his credit, Piastri bounced back in the last two rounds. Had it not been for a poor strategy call in Qatar, he would have taken a comfortable victory.

Piastri finished ahead of Norris after a bold pass at Turn 9 on the opening lap in Abu Dhabi.

Reflecting on his campaign, he said: “Honestly, pretty good. I knew that going into today I needed the stars to align to win the championship.

“Ultimately, I tried my best and put myself in the best position I could to try and win the race and give myself the best opportunity, but it wasn’t to be. I think we can be very proud of the season we’ve had.

“On a personal level, it’s obviously not quite the ending that I wished for but I think when you look at the season as a whole, I’m very proud of the work that I’ve been able to put in and my team have been able to put in to make so much progress from last year. I’m looking forward to plenty more fights in the future.”

“It is nice to end the last couple of weekends on a relative high, certainly from a performance point of view,” he summarised. “I guess individually it was nice to find some form again because it would have been pretty painful to end it on the note that Austin, Mexico and Brazil kind of went to.

“Ultimately, there were ups and downs through the year. I’ll look back on the ups with a lot of pride and joy, and look on the downs with plenty of lessons learned. There are plenty more years left to go and hopefully plenty more opportunities.”