Oscar Piastri refuses to dwell on ‘stupid mistake’ after Azerbaijan crash

Oscar Piastri is focused on what is to come and not the disappointment he endured at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The championship leader was an opening lap retirement following an uncharacteristic sequence of events that began with a jump start.

Oscar Piastri not dwelling on ‘stupid’ Baku mistake

Piastri’s 34-race points-scoring run came to a crashing halt in Baku when he snatched a brake and skated into the barrier at Turn 5 on the first lap.

That followed a jump start, and his McLaren going into antistall as he recovered, which dropped him from ninth to the back of the pack before he’d reached the first corner – his first race retirement since his rookie season.

A day earlier, he’d had a similar off at Turn 3 in the final stages of qualifying, which left him on the fifth row of the grid.

It made for an uncharacteristic weekend for the Australian, who has developed a reputation for being unshakeable – partly due to his race-winning performance under extreme pressure from Charles Leclerc in Baku last year.

However, Piastri offered no excuses and shouldered the full responsibility for his early exit.

“I jumped the start, plain and simple,” he told DAZN. “I judged it wrong. A stupid mistake, obviously, and frustrating, of course.

“Mistakes like this shouldn’t happen, but they do. We’re all human. The important thing is to turn the page and try to do better for the rest of the season.”

Aside from plucking a front wing off his car in Monaco earlier this year, it marked the first time in memory that Piastri has damaged his car.

Along with his 34-race points-scoring streak, which began at the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, was the third-longest in F1 history, Azerbaijan also marked the end of a 44-race finishing record (Mexico City 2023 – Azerbaijan 2025). Only Lewis Hamilton’s run of 48 races from Britain 2018 to Bahrain 2020 surpasses it.

While Piastri was an early retirement, the sting was arguably taken out of the result as Lando Norris could do no better than seventh at the chequered flag.

The McLaren pair are locked in battle for the world championship, and were split by 31 points heading into Baku.

With seven races remaining, that gap now stands at 25 points – the equivalent of a single race win.

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A maximum of 199 points remains on the table in the seven grands prix and three sprints that remain in F1 2025 meaning, mathematically at least, Piastri (324pts), Norris (299), Max Verstappen (255), George Russell (212), and Charles Leclerc (165) remain in contention.

Realistically, it is a straight shootout between the McLaren duo, though Piastri has refused to rule out Verstappen just yet.

“I’m not going to rule him out,” Piastri said. “But I’m honestly not too concerned with that.

“I’m just trying to bounce back from this weekend and put in the best performances that I can.

“I know that if I get back to where I know I can be, then I’ll be more than okay, so that’s what I’m going to focus on.”

F1 heads next to Singapore, a race won by Norris last year as Piastri finished third.

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