Has Oscar Piastri's Mid-Season Dip Cost Him the 2025 F1 Championship?

Heading into the final round of the 2025 season, everything is still to play for between the top three. While Lando Norris leads the championship, his gap is down to just 12 points to Max Verstappen in second and 16 points to Oscar Piastri. But it wasn’t long ago that Piastri led the field healthily, and any challenge to his maiden title seemed a distant possibility.

Yet, in Qatar, he not only saw a win slip out of his hands but also lost second place in the standings to Verstappen. Falling to third seemingly put salt in the wound in what has been a disappointing second half of the year.

From the first lights out of the season, McLaren positioned themselves as the clear team to beat on the grid. The duo settled into a consistent rhythm of being on the podium with papaya often on the top step. Though the Red Bull of Verstappen was in the rear mirrors of the Woking-based team, he was often just a step too far behind the leader to present a serious challenge.

Very quickly into the 2025 season, Oscar Piastri not only established himself as a title contender but as the better of the McLaren duo.

Despite Norris having multiple seasons of experience over his younger Australian teammate, Piastri's cool, calm demeanour was praised as he collected five wins and three other podiums in the first ten rounds of the season, charging to the title lead.

In Canada, the dynamic was set as Norris tried to make a move past his teammate, found the wall, and crashed out of the race, while the Australian stayed calm and took fourth. In the next six rounds, he took two wins and four podiums, putting the seemingly unshakeable Australian into a rhythm.

However, unbeknownst to all watching on eagerly, the cool-headed Australian was about to crack. Zandvoort was Piastri’s last win before the tides shifted. Coming back off the summer break, all momentum pointed in Piastri’s direction.

Until a recurring problem reared its head. Since Piastri’s debut in F1, the only downfall in his performance has been a consistent drop-off in the second half of the year. Initially, the explanation was that it came at the tracks the Australian had less experience, but in 2025, it’s gone a step further.

It’s beyond the race performance, with Piastri falling short not just of his teammate but also of other opponents in qualifying and race trim.

The driver, who has prided himself and been lauded by the media as having a mistake-free campaign up to this point, then faced an abysmal weekend. In Baku, Piastri suffered a rare crash in qualifying, a vital crack forming in the surface of the championship leader.

It became a step worse when the Australian hit the wall in the opening lap of the race. Bringing the gap down between him and Norris and reigniting the championship hopes for the Brit. From there, an unfortunate pattern began to emerge for Piastri, while Norris began to step into the momentum, with Verstappen following suit and often leading the pack – Piastri fell short.

After his DNF in Baku, he failed to reach the podium until Qatar, a span of five rounds without taking home silverware. But it wasn’t just a difficult race result, it was struggles from the first session of the weekend all the way to the chequered flag.

Suddenly, the Australian who had seemingly always been on the front row was finding himself out of contention for pole and instead fighting for seventh. In the race trim, he suffered the same problem; gone was his blinding pace seen in the fast half, replaced with Piastri being forced to settle for fifth place.

In Las Vegas, it felt as though the order was set, and Lando Norris was going to take the title in Qatar. Until the entire championship was shaken up.

After the Las Vegas Grand Prix, both McLarens were put under investigation. Their rear skid planks were found to be too worn after the race, in breach of the regulations. A few hours after the podium, as the evening marched on in Sin City, both McLarens were disqualified.

Max Verstappen took the win, with the 25-point jump pushing him level with Piastri in second and just 24 points away from the Brit. Suddenly, for the first time since Zandvoort, it felt as though the championship fight was back on.

In Qatar, Piastri was focused. Glimpses of him from the beginning of the season gleamed through the edges. He took pole for the sprint race and went on to win. The championship gap closed by two points. He then furthered his chances by taking pole for the main race, Norris lining up second.

With just one round left after Qatar, Norris could still take the title if he won the Grand Prix, but Oscar Piastri and Verstappen were determined to take the fight to the wire.

The Australian made a good start off the line, watching his teammate and championship rival squabble behind as he broke the DRS gap immediately. The win seemed inevitable and with it a further reignition of his championship hopes.

However, the first sign of trouble came when Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly made contact, bringing out a Safety Car and opening a pit opportunity to swap out tyres. McLaren opted to pit neither of their cars. Instead, both of the papaya duo watched on as Max Verstappen and the entire grid behind funnelled into the pits, and the chance to win came into question.

McLaren’s mistake cost both drivers. Piastri crossed the line second, losing out to Verstappen. Norris finished fourth, failing to take silverware and damaging his championship lead.

As the chequered flag fell, Norris’s gap had fallen to just twelve points. More importantly, Piastri now sat behind the Dutchman.

While the Australian’s performance in Qatar was more of the old Piastri we’d seen earlier in the season, with Verstappen on his peak performance and Norris still challenging each weekend, it feels as though a late increase in performance will not be enough to push him over the line.

Now with Abu Dhabi on the horizon, even with perfection from Piastri’s side, he is left to rely on the failures of Norris and Verstappen. Which have recently been few and far between.
Either result will leave Piastri with a clear area to focus on as he looks towards 2026. His dip in performance has left him struggling to keep himself in the fight in the latter part of the season.

While his impressive early season performance, McLaren's speed and the other teams' struggles have kept him in play this year, there are no guarantees under the new regulations. Will McLaren provide him with another championship-winning car in 2026, and with it, another shot if he fails to secure the Drivers’ Championship this year?

With the tightest championship battle since 2021, there’s still everything to play for and everything to lose.  
 

The upcoming 2026 regulation changes mark the biggest technology shift in Formula 1's history, and with it, a near-guaranteed shake-up of the grid. With the 2025 season heading to its electrifying finale this weekend in Abu Dhabi, excitement is already building for next year. Don't miss the action as Formula 1 returns to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix next July!

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