Max Verstappen should prepare for more than a one-car McLaren attack on his Drivers’ Championship.
That is because Oscar Piastri believes he is capable of joining his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in the F1 2025 World Championship battle.
Oscar Piastri ready to take on Max Verstappen challenge
After the Verstappen and Red Bull dominance which had continued into early F1 2024 faded away, it was the McLaren MCL38 which emerged as arguably the new benchmark, with Norris becoming a threat to Verstappen’s pursuit of a fourth consecutive Drivers’ title.
Verstappen would withstand the pressure and secured his fourth crown with two rounds to spare, but McLaren returned to the Constructors’ Championship summit for the first time since 1998.
This time around, McLaren are eyeing up both championships, but Piastri believes he can be McLaren’s next World Champion, as he offered an insight into how he can make the step up to that level in his third season in Formula 1 with McLaren.
Piastri claimed two grand prix wins compared to Norris’ four in F1 2024, Norris finishing runner-up in the Championship with 374 points versus Piastri’s 292, while Norris comfortably ran out the victor over Piastri in the qualifying head-to-head 21-3.
“I do think that I can become World Champion this year,” Piastri declared at the launch of McLaren’s F1 2025 challenger, the MCL39.
“I feel like 12 months ago I was going into the season still with some weaknesses that I wasn’t particularly confident with. Through last season I addressed them and it’s now just about addressing them every weekend.
“I’m confident and I think we’ve still got some things to work on. I’m definitely not the finished product but I don’t think anyone necessarily is. If we can work on some of the things that we’ve set out to do in this off-season, then I’ll have a lot of tools to be able to try and make that happen.
“There were definitely a couple of weekends where I wasn’t as strong as I wanted to be.
“I think it’s building up the resilience to be able to adapt a bit quicker in the weekends. We’ve gone into a lot of detail on how we can be better prepared for this season and some of the more specific driving opportunities.
“I said at the end of last season qualifying is something I wanted to work on, but I think going through a lot of the details and things, it’s not just qualifying better. There are some specifics that if I can improve on those, it’ll make everything better. Then you get the confidence and everything naturally helps itself.
“There are definitely some opportunities we’ve identified and if I can work on those, then hopefully those weekends at some point from last season will disappear.
“Ultimately what’s going to be important this season is putting your best foot forward every weekend, because there are going to be weekends where you’re not the quickest. It’s how you can still make the most of those weekends where you’re not on top.”
McLaren sent the MCL39 out on track for the first time on Thursday at Silverstone as part of a surprise launch, their new creation decked out in a papaya and black camo livery, with the F1 2025 liveries to be revealed on February 18 at the O2 in London, where all 10 teams will be present for the season launch event.
And Piastri confirmed that McLaren have continued to innovate as the impressive MCL38 makes way for the MCL39.
“We’re obviously going into the same regs this year, but we’ve not stood still,” he told Sky Sports.
“There are some things that are different, some new innovations on this car, and I think that’s what you need to do to try and stay at the top.
“We’ve seen in the past that, when it’s not been us winning, other teams have been constantly putting new things on their car and not standing still as well.
“Through last season we, of course, came out on top in the Constructors’ Championship, but it was so tight through the whole season, so you really can’t afford to stand still, because there’s a lot of teams waiting to try and overtake us.”