Oscar Piastri ‘trap’ warning as Kimi Raikkonen spots Antonelli risk

Oscar Piastri could not “handle the pressure” of his 2025 title battle versus McLaren teammate Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

That is the opinion expressed by 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who is backing his namesake, and F1 2026 championship leader Kimi Antonelli to avoid falling into the same “trap” which Piastri did last year.

Kimi Raikkonen on Oscar Piastri’s 2025 title collapse

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust.

Australia’s Oscar Piastri led the 2025 championship by 34 points after the Dutch Grand Prix, but suffered for a collapse in form later in the year.

Piastri did steady the ship at the final two rounds, winning the Qatar Sprint and finishing the Grand Prix in second, repeating that P2 at the Abu Dhabi finale, but it was Norris who emerged as a first-time world champion.

Skip forward to F1 2026, and Mercedes’ teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli has emerged as the title favourite after winning four consecutive grands prix.

Following a heartbreaking DNF for Antonelli’s teammate and title rival George Russell, Antonelli leads the championship by 43 points.

“Obviously, in Formula 1, you don’t win four consecutive grand prix races unless you have a special talent,” Kimi Raikkonen said of Antonelli in a Quotidiano Sportivo interview.

“Antonelli’s record is a remarkable achievement. Having the right car is essential, but that’s always been the case, in every era.”

Raikkonen believes that the Italian teenage Kimi can become world champion, something which Antonelli “believes he can” do also according to Raikkonen, after his observations.

“You can see it in the way he approaches the races, in the spirit he puts into it,” Raikkonen added.

Raikkonen then drew a comparison between Piastri’s title scenario of last year, and the one which Antonelli now finds himself in.

Raikkonen, in his typical to-the-point fashion which resonated with the F1 fanbase, said that Piastri “couldn’t handle the pressure” of his title fight.

He does not envisage Antonelli suffering the same downfall.

“Antonelli won’t lose his focus; he’s showing maturity,” Raikkonen declared.

“He’ll have to avoid following in the footsteps of Piastri in 2025. At one point, the Australian McLaren driver seemed to have the title in the bag but couldn’t handle the pressure. The Italian lad won’t fall into the same trap.”

More on Oscar Piastri from PlanetF1.com

Oscar Piastri’s ‘deserved’ penalty summed up McLaren’s Canadian GP misery

Oscar Piastri ‘buzzing’ to have unique honour in ‘part of biological history’

Speaking after his historic fourth successive win, it was pointed out to Antonelli that he now leads the championship by a greater margin than Piastri ever had over Norris in 2025.

“Yeah, but to be fair, I’m not thinking about championship,” he replied. “I’m just focusing on race by race. I think it’s still very early to talk about that.

“And of course, now I have this gap, but that doesn’t mean that I can relax and just take it easier. Instead, I need to keep levelling up and keep raising the bar because it’s not going to be easy and competitors are getting closer, and also George is super quick.

“So definitely I’m just going to try to focus on myself and enjoy the driving and trying to really drive as fast as possible.”

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!

Read next: Russell and Antonelli submit joint Mercedes request as Canadian GP meeting uncovered