Piastri admits he misses title-fight pressure as McLaren struggles in 2025

Oscar Piastri has acknowledged an unexpected downside to McLaren’s difficult 2025 campaign: the absence of the pressure that comes with fighting for a world championship.

The Australian sits seventh in the drivers’ standings with three races remaining, 94 points adrift of team-mate Lando Norris, who claimed the 2024 title after a season-long intra-team battle that also involved a late surge from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Piastri, who led the championship for much of last year, ultimately finished third.

“I want to be in a championship fight every year if I can be, but also, it’s definitely a bit more relaxed this year,” Piastri told RacingNews365. “Obviously, we’re not wanting to be in this position, but there’s not quite the same stress.”

He was candid about what that stress actually represents. “That stress that you have in a championship fight is the feeling you want because it means you’re fighting for something that is what your goal is. I am missing that feeling this year for sure, and it adds a bit of extra intensity and things like that.”

Piastri conceded there are minor compensations to being out of contention — “there are some things that are a little bit easier when you’re not in a championship” — but made clear the trade-off is not one he welcomes.

McLaren’s 2025 season has been shaped largely by the challenge of adapting to Formula 1’s new technical regulations, with the team identifying early that the revised car was not straightforward to drive.

“The first few races we were really occupied with the power unit and how to get the most out of that,” Piastri explained. “After the first few races, and especially after they tweaked some of the rules, it became a bit more normal, and that’s when we really dug deep into what the car itself is like.”

He described the process of diagnosing and addressing the car’s handling as slow but ongoing. “It wasn’t that easy to drive, and it’s still not been easy to drive, even now. We recognised pretty early on that the car had some things that were tricky to manage. It took us a while to understand exactly what needed to change, and then trying to actually change it is tough.”

Norris’s victory in Brazil offered evidence that McLaren’s recent development work is beginning to bear fruit, though Piastri’s own results have not yet reflected the same upturn. With three rounds left in the season, his focus appears to be on understanding the car well enough to return as a genuine title contender in 2026.