Brundle claims Oscar Piastri ‘misread’ after Norris title defeat

Martin Brundle believes that Oscar Piastri was “misread” in F1 2025. According to Brundle, Piastri is not as “stone cold, horizontal” as thought.

But, Brundle regards Piastri as a World Champion of the future, despite that setback of his title defeat to McLaren teammate Lando Norris. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella went a step further, and predicted “multiple” titles in the future of Piastri.

Oscar Piastri ‘misread’, claims Martin Brundle

Piastri hoovered up titles on the junior scene, and for large parts of F1 2025, it appeared as though he was set to become Formula 1 World Champion in just his third season.

Piastri was 34 points clear out front after Zandvoort, but fell into a run of six grands prix without a podium. That included a very uncharacteristic error-strewn Azerbaijan GP. Piastri crashed in qualifying, and crashed out in the early stages of the race.

Slowly, the unflappable aura which had surrounded Piastri became increasingly challenged. Brundle believes Piastri is not as impervious as originally thought.

Despite a return to form over the final two rounds, the title was won by Norris.

“He had that fallow period where he wasn’t scoring much from Baku onwards,” Brundle said of Piastri on Sky F1.

“He’s got to try not to, but you can’t help but think, one rainy corner in his backyard in Melbourne… He was so unlucky to go off onto the grass and lose so many points there.

“Or two hard penalties on him in Silverstone and Brazil, that could have easily been mitigated into five-second penalties or no penalties. There are a number of little turning points.

“But you can’t change that.

“So now, I think he’s got to work out where he can be stronger and work more closely with the team and just draw a line under it. Easier said than done.”

Brundle added: “What we have to remember is he has 82 races less experience than Lando. That’s three-and-a-half-seasons.

“Imagine how much Lando has improved in the last three-and-a-half seasons.

“He is a future World Champion. I have no doubt about that, Oscar Piastri.

“But, I think we might have misread him a little bit as well, I thought. He sort of went on the missing list a little bit for six races, threw it in the wall in Baku, and lost his head a little bit.

“He’s not absolutely stone cold, horizontal. I think he soaks a little bit as well. We misread him.”

Nico Rosberg, the 2016 World Champion, turned Brundle’s Sky F1 colleague, still regards Piastri as one of the very best, mentally, which F1 has to offer.

“Mentally, he is so strong,” Rosberg stated. “I would consider him one of the strongest out there, just so level-headed.”

Lando Norris vs Oscar Piastri: Final head-to-head standings

F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

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While Brundle considers Piastri a future World Champion, Stella believes “multiple” await his driver.

“Lando is Champion. Effectively, we could have had two champions this year. The gap between the two was so small,” Stella told Sky F1.

“I said after qualifying [in Abu Dhabi], I think it was 30 milliseconds, that was the whole story of a season. 30 milliseconds in qualifying. Always so close on track.

“Oscar was a worthwhile champion, and he was worthwhile champion [in his] third season in Formula 1. He learned so rapidly. He had a couple of races where he struggled a bit in the famous low-grip tracks. He learned very rapidly what to do. He became immediately competitive again.

“His trajectory is phenomenal, and definitely we have a future multiple World Champion in Oscar.”

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