Piastri reveals what he’ll ‘take forever’ from 2025 F1 season

Oscar Piastri doesn’t talk like a driver licking his wounds. He talks like one who has been sharpened by them.

Thirteen points short. Nine races too quiet. A championship that once felt within reach slipping into a team-mate’s hands. The 2025 season will always carry a sting for the McLaren driver — but it has also left him with something far more durable than silverware.

Confidence.

Piastri spent much of last year setting the pace in what became a record-equalling 24-race campaign, leading the standings deep into the season and briefly looking like Australia’s long-awaited next world champion.

Even as Lando Norris surged late to take the title, Piastri insists the experience has reshaped him in ways that will endure.

“There were so many parts of the season that were successful, and so many parts of the season that I look back on with great memories,” Piastri said, speaking to Australian broadcaster 7Sport.

But it’s not the wins alone that stay with him.

“The amount of confidence that I found throughout the year, in myself and my own abilities, is something I can take forever.”

That self-belief was forged through pressure – through leading a championship, through expectation, and through the inevitable corrections that followed. Piastri is clear-eyed about where it went wrong, and just as clear about why it mattered.

“Definitely some things to work on, and [there were] a few moments that I probably wish I had again, and I'm sure the team think the same.

“But it's all going to make me stronger for the future, and we've got plenty more years of success to come, hopefully.”

It’s the language of a driver who has learned not just how to win, but how to lose productively.

Strength From the Grandstands

Away from lap times and strategy calls, Piastri also found reinforcement in a growing connection with fans – particularly those who travelled far to follow one of their own.

“For the European part of the season, there are maybe not quite as many,” he said.

“But the Aussies that are there make their support felt. We're not always the biggest crowd, but we're normally the loudest, so it's always great to feel that.”

As the calendar shifted closer to home, that backing became impossible to ignore.

“There are a few races a bit closer to home, Singapore, for example,” he said.

“For me, the amount of support and the amount of fans that I gained through the year that I could see in the grandstands was really, really special. So hopefully that trend continues.”

• Read also: Palmer: Piastri’s qualifying leap sparked Aussie’s ‘coming of age’

The 2025 title may have slipped away, but Piastri isn’t carrying regret into the new season – he’s carrying reference points. Of belief earned. Of weaknesses identified. Of a year that didn’t end in a trophy but may well shape everything that comes next.

Some lessons fade. Others, as Piastri puts it, you “take forever.”

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