Bernie Ecclestone has never been shy about picking favorites. Now, at 94, the man who once ran Formula 1’s show has thrown his weight behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, calling the Australian the best driver on the 2025 grid—bar one.
“He gets the job done,” Ecclestone said in an interview with sport.de, praising Piastri’s habit of owning mistakes rather than blaming the garage or the gods. “He doesn’t make them twice. He’s the best driver after Max Verstappen.”
It’s a sentiment Ecclestone’s been circling for a while. Back in 2023, he said that if he were a team owner, he’d “get hold of the Australian kid.” And for good measure: “Max is the best ever.” You can argue with the list, but not with the clarity.
The timing of the endorsement suits Piastri. He’s spent the bulk of this season setting the pace for a resurgent McLaren, leading a title fight that’s stopped and started with the ebb and flow of upgrades and mistakes across the grid. Lando Norris has been within reach all year, and Max Verstappen’s late-season push—sparked by an upgraded floor introduced at Monza—has dragged Red Bull back into the conversation. But in the aggregate, Piastri’s been the steadiest hand.
That’s not to say flawless. Baku was a thud: a brush with the wall in qualifying and first-lap contact in the race. Yet even that episode seemed to underline what Ecclestone’s getting at. Piastri doesn’t mope, he recalibrates. It’s been a trademark since his rookie campaign, when the speed was clear and the learning curve was short.
Ecclestone also gave a nod to McLaren’s wider operation, saying the team’s driver duo is “lucky” to be in “the right team at the right time.” He even tossed a backhanded compliment at Zak Brown: not the most “talented,” in Ecclestone’s words, but very good at hiring the right people. However you interpret the delivery, the point stands. McLaren’s rebuild—technical leadership aligned, development cadence on point—has put both drivers in cars regularly capable of winning on merit. That wasn’t true not so long ago.
What makes Piastri stand out inside that orange surge is his particular brand of ruthlessness. It’s quiet and methodical, more Prost than Senna in temperament, even if the lap times carry plenty of bite. When he’s not out front, he tends to be lurking with intent, nibbling away at gaps, forcing the kind of pressure errors that alter pit windows and strategies. On days when McLaren hasn’t had the fastest package, he’s banked big points anyway.
That consistency is precisely what terrifies rivals in a season shaped as much by marginal gains as outright dominance. There’s no single magic bullet in 2025; the top teams have traded weekends depending on circuit traits and temperature windows. In that context, the championship is a long game. Piastri has played it like someone who’s been here before, even if technically he hasn’t.
The Verstappen comparison is inevitable and unavoidable. Ecclestone calls Max the greatest—“no doubts.” It’s harsh on a few eras, but it also shows the standard against which he’s measuring Piastri. Verstappen’s late push this year has been pure relentlessness: low drama, high yield, just enough to force everyone else to sweat their Sundays. To be ranked immediately behind that is rare air for a driver still in the early chapters of his career.
And yes, there’s another layer: the Norris factor. McLaren’s internal dynamic has been fascinating—two drivers capable of landing punches, both growing, both aware that small swings matter in a title fight. The team has kept it clean, the strategies mostly even-handed, and the data flow helping both sides. But this is F1; a few more stakes races and the temperature naturally rises.
Ecclestone, naturally, sees fortune favoring the aligned. “Right team, right time” is a cliché until the pit wall makes a call that vaults you five places. McLaren’s execution has had that sheen this season: pit stops mostly sharp, tyre choices sensible rather than heroic, and upgrades arriving when promised. When you live in the margins, those are the wins that don’t show up on highlight reels but decide championships.
What’s left for Piastri is the hard part: finish the job. Keep the mistakes scarce, the starts clean, the elbows measured. Ecclestone’s endorsement won’t win him a title, but it does reflect how the paddock increasingly talks about the Australian—calm, sharp, unflustered, and capable of making very fast cars look very simple.
If he carries that into the final stretch, the “best after Max” tag might soon feel like an undersell.
