Piastri answers speed versus flawless debate in F1 2025 title race

Oscar Piastri made it clear that both speed and a lack of errors will be needed to win his first World Championship.

The battle for the F1 2025 Drivers’ Championship has evolved into a two-horse race between McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. With 10 rounds to go, it is advantage Piastri.

Oscar Piastri needs speed and limited mistakes

The F1 2025 Drivers’ title race is heating up, and could well go all the way to the final round in Abu Dhabi.

Piastri sits atop the Drivers’ Championship, as he looks to become Australia’s first World Champion since Alan Jones in 1980. But, his advantage is a slender nine points, with Norris having won three of the last four grands prix.

When speaking to media, including PlanetF1.com, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Piastri was asked whether being the faster McLaren driver, or the cleaner one, will be most critical to winning the title.

“Both ideally,” he replied.

“I mean, you can make an argument for either one. You can be consistent, but if you’re consistently coming second, then that’s not very useful for you. So you do need to have both.

“And at the level of the field and the level of my team-mate, you need to bring your best, and inevitably, when you’re pushing that hard, there are going to be mistakes here and there, because it doesn’t come without risk.

“But you can’t just afford to take things easy and try and be consistent. You need to push and you need to be quick, and then, yeah, of course, you try and execute as best as you can. But you need both to win the championship. You can’t just rely on one.”

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris head-to-head in F1 2025

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

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

Pressed further on the subject, Piastri added: “The way you win races at the back end of the season is the same way as at the start of the season.

“You need to be faster than everyone around you, and you need to make the least mistakes possible. So that aspect doesn’t really change.

“And like I said, it’s great to be consistent, but if you’re consistently being beaten as well, that’s no recipe for a championship.

“Obviously, if you’re a robot, you’d be able to be as fast as possible and make zero mistakes, but we’re all humans, so that’s not possible. I think there is going to be an element of minimising mistakes.

“But like I said, you need to be fast at the same time, and you can’t afford to sit back. Because I think if you try to take that approach, then you’ll end up being beaten.”

Piastri has extensive experience of wrapping-up a championship. In his glittering junior career, he won the Formula Renault Eurocup, Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in consecutive seasons.

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