Oscar Piastri Sets Sights On 2025 Championship With Strategy To 'Deploy All The Tools'

Saajan Jogia | Jan 2, 2025

Nov 20, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; McLaren Team driver Oscar Piastri (81) during media availalbilities at Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri believes he could be a championship contender in 2025 after a strong 2024 season, where he secured two Grand Prix victories and finished fourth in the championship with 82 points behind his championship runner-up teammate Lando Norris. Piastri reckons he has all the tools to win his maiden title, but he must "deploy them all the time."

The F2 and F3 champion made a significant leap last year from his rookie 2023 season, delivering strong performances throughout the season and helping McLaren win its first Constructors' Championship after 26 years. With the grid expected to be tighter this season, the Australian driver has set his sights on the championship, knowing that the key to success is putting all his tools together and utilizing them to his advantage. When asked by Motorsport.com if he could be in a championship fight this year, he said:

“I think so, yes. I've still got some learning and improving to do.

“I feel like now I'm getting to a stage where on certain days I feel like I have almost all the tools that I need. I'm just not putting them together as much as I want to and I feel like last year I didn't have all the tools that I needed. I had some of them, but I still was missing some.  

“I feel like now this year, if I don't have all of them, I certainly have a lot more – and whether that's race pace, qualifying, racing other people, I feel like I've shown good moments of that, or even in some of those areas. I've just been generally very happy across the board.”

With McLaren's dominant performance in 2024, Piastri was asked how being at the top altered his perception of performances. He said:

“Just putting it all together a bit more is, I think, what's going to be needed. So now that you're at the front, you get exposed for anything that you can't do perfectly more than what you would being a bit further back in the pack.

“But I feel like I have all the tools I need. I just need to be able to deploy them all the time.” 

In another interview, Piastri identified his qualifying pace as the only area of his performance that needs improvement. Acknowledging the importance of consistently starting at the front, he told RacingNews365:

"I've been very happy with the racecraft I've shown.

"But I guess the negative is qualifying. Sometimes it's only been one or two positions back from where I feel like I should have been, but sometimes it was further back. 

"And even when it's qualifying second instead of first, it makes your life more difficult, so I feel like there's been a lot of races where I have been able to rescue qualifying, but there's been more than a few where I haven't been able to as well.

"So hopefully I don't have to use what I think is one of my strengths so much next season, and I can qualify consistently better, and that's probably the biggest takeaway for next season.

"I think now it's a case of tidying everything up and putting it all together consistently, whereas I think in my rookie season, there were definitely still some gaps where even if I did put everything together, it sometimes wasn't enough."