Oscar Piastri says his season hasn’t fallen apart — it’s come together.
While the narrative around McLaren has tilted toward Lando Norris in recent weeks, Piastri insists 2025 has been the year everything “clicked,” even if the scoreboard has been less friendly lately. Speaking on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, the Australian framed the campaign as a genuine breakthrough built as much in the gym and debrief room as it was in qualifying trim.
It tracks with what we’ve seen. Early in the year Piastri looked effortless — precise, fast, and ruthless when it mattered — before a flat spell handed the momentum back across the McLaren garage. He isn’t hiding from that dip, but he’s not letting it define the picture either.
“The difference this year is that all the little pieces finally sat where they should,” he said. “I’m putting weekends together more often. Last year was about learning. This year’s been about executing.”
A big part of that execution, he says, is the new face in his corner: Artturi Similia. The Finn, who replaced Kim Keedle as Piastri’s physio, has been described to him as a “secret weapon” and, with a grin, an “assassin.” It’s not just label-making. Similia’s background — MMA, NFL, elite Olympic programs — brings a different lens to F1’s longest, most punishing calendar.
“He’s been massive,” Piastri said. “It’s his first year in F1 too, so we’ve both been learning. Managing fatigue, travel, how to arrive at a Thursday already on the front foot — that’s been a big focus. He’s added new ideas and, honestly, he’s just kept me in the best possible condition to do the job.”
Drivers often say their trainer is the person they spend the most time with all year, and Piastri didn’t shy away from that truth either: “I’ve spent more time with Artturi than anyone else in the world this year,” he joked. The pair’s dynamic clearly works; Piastri sounds more assured talking about how he communicates what he wants from the car, and how he extracts it with the engineers around him.
That dovetails with what McLaren has demanded from its drivers in this era: a capacity to turn dense data into simple, repeatable speed. You can hear it in Piastri’s language now. He talks less about “finding a lap” and more about the process of building one — the micro gains in out-lap prep, the discipline when the wind shifts, the trade-offs in balance he’s more comfortable making on the fly.
None of that erases the reality that Norris currently has the upper hand, as the official standings show with the season heading into its decisive run-in. Piastri was ahead earlier in the year; a run without a podium invited his teammate back into clear air. That’s sport — the tide moves, and champions are made on how they ride it.
If you’re hunting for the plot twist, there isn’t one: Piastri isn’t pointing fingers. He’s pointing to the work. A longer season amplifies the human margins, and his camp has tried to own that space — fitness, resilience, rhythm — as much as any rear-wing upgrade.
What’s left is simple and brutal: three race weekends, and very little room for error. Piastri’s ceiling this year has already proven high enough to win grands prix on merit; the question is whether he can bottle that version of himself again when it counts most.
“By the end of last year it felt like I knew the missing piece,” he said. “This year I’ve put it together more often than not. Now it’s about doing it when everything’s on the line.”
Norris versus Piastri has been the season’s cleanest story — two drivers in the same machinery, pushing each other without the rancor that often infects these battles. If the tone stays respectful, the driving has been anything but gentle. That’s good for McLaren, good for F1, and, if you take Piastri at his word, good for him too. Pressure is a mirror. He likes what he sees.
