Starting P2, alongside polesitter and teammate Lando Norris, Australia’s own Oscar Piastri went into the opening race of the 2025 F1 season a favourite for the win as McLaren Racing were 1-2 on the grid.
Unfortunately for him, this was not to be, as a spin in the late stages of the race saw him drop to the back of the grid. Piastri ultimately finished the race ninth—a disappointing end to an otherwise impressive Australian GP weekend in Melbourne.
Strong pace despite a “not amazing” start to the race
While speaking to the media after the Australian GP, Piastri described the start of his race as “not amazing”, having lost position to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen out of turn 2.
“The start was not amazing. Just got pinched on the inside a little bit and then got overtaken.”
Despite this, Piastri stated that he had enjoyed “really strong” pace, which he demonstrated some laps later by reclaiming his position by the Dutch driver’s mistake, and later on, by working his way back into the points.
“I think the pace was really strong until we pitted for slicks. I think Max may have locked up a little bit and went wide. And I was able to show the pace I had.
“Just a shame that all of that didn’t lead to the result we wanted today,” the Australian driver lamented.
Piastri “only has [himself] to blame” for losing position
The Australian driver also described the incidents which led to him dropping to the back of the pack. The first of these incidents involved his teammate Norris and resulted in both drivers going off track and into the gravel. Though both returned to the track soon after, they dropped down a few positions. Norris was ultimately able to reclaim the lead of the race, but a spin into the grass took Piastri out of contention for a win at the Australian GP.
“[I] tried to push a bit too much, I guess,” Piastri replied when asked what had happened. He explained that the conditions around the Albert Park Circuit had been tricky and constantly evolving and that had made it difficult for him to properly judge the track.
“In those conditions, it’s very difficult to judge just how slippery it’s going to be. I think from one lap to the next it had really changed a lot and I could see Lando going off in front of me, but I was also already in the corner basically.
“So there wasn’t much I could do to slow myself down at that point. And then once you’re in the gravel and the grass you obviously try to keep the car as straight as possible.”
He described the latter incident as “pretty unbelievable” but stated that he could blame no one other than himself for being there. He described the incident as “a shame.”
And then obviously to get stuck in the grass like that was pretty unbelievable, sat in the car.
“But I’ve only got myself to blame for being there, so it’s a shame.”
Piastri “was just trying to stay in the race” after late spin at the Australian GP
The McLaren driver did, however, confirm that he had worked to get back on track by his own volition, wanting to complete home race.
“I was just trying to stay in the race,” he said.
He joked that it was a good thing that he had learnt how to “reverse a tractor”, referring his November visit to former Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s Farm.
“Tried to go forwards and couldn’t. So it’s a good thing I spent some time in the off-season trying to learn how to reverse a tractor on Jeremy Clarkson’s farm. I think it came in handy today.
The Australian driver reiterated, “So yeah, I was just trying to get myself back in the race.”
Piastri glad to have finished in the points after “frustrating” end to Australian GP
The McLaren driver also described his race after the spin and his recover. Having ended up at the back of the pack, ahead of only Haas’ Oliver Bearman, Piastri had to work his way back up into the points, despite tricky conditions and a rapidly finishing race, punctuated by a Safety Car.
While he acknowledged that his “strong pace” and confidence worked to his advantage, he described the final restart as “frustrating”.
“I knew that we had strong pace and I knew that I had strong pace. Even after the final restart was frustrating, off on, went wide, nearly lost the car at the last corner.
“So I went past just by driving normally and then had to give the position back, so I lost 3 or 4 seconds doing that. And then I think given that I had to unlock myself, I had some pretty good temperature in the tyres and was just able to capitalise on that, the car’s pace and my own confidence I think.”
While Piastri is disappointed to have not achieved more, especially in front of his home crowd in Melbourne, he is relieved to have at least salvaged his race, earning two points for McLaren.
“So I’m glad that we at least got back to the points, but it should have been a lot more.”
McLaren’s rules of engagement “a pretty minor moment”
Piastri also addressed his team’s reluctance to allow their drivers to race each other in the earlier stages of the race, despite the Aussie having more pace than the leading Norris. While McLaren did eventually permit Piastri to compete for the position, the 23-year-old could not make much of it, due to degradation of his front left tyre.
“Yeah, we were holding position before that. I think by the time we were free to race, it kind of killed my front left a little bit getting to the back of Lando. So yeah, by that point there wasn’t much I could do.”
Despite this potentially costing him a chance to take the lead, Piastri described the decision as a “pretty minor moment” in the grand scheme of the overall Australian GP race.
“I think that was probably a pretty minor moment in today’s race.”
He believes that his team had been concerned about the extreme racing conditions, made worse by there being only one dry line, and upcoming traffic. However, Piastri intends to speak with his team to better understand their rationale for the decision, though he emphasised that “those kind of calls” could come “in either direction.”
“I think today’s race and the circumstances were pretty extreme. We were approaching back markers, one dry line, not knowing if there was going to be rain to come.
“So I’ll speak to the team and try to understand better what the thinking was. But I think it’s always clear that those kind of calls can come in either direction.”
Piastri proud of job done at F1 Australian GP
Regardless of the disappointing end to his Australian GP weekend, Piastri is proud of his performance for the majority of it. He stated that his mistake did not detract from his overall good performance throughout the weekend.
“I think for essentially 56 laps of today’s race, I was very proud of the job I did. I feel like the pace was really strong and yeah, obviously disappointed with the mistake I made. But I think that doesn’t take away completely from how strong the whole weekend’s been for not just the team but for myself. I feel like I’ve done a good job all weekend.”
He added, “So I think it wouldn’t be pessimistic of me to just write off the whole weekend because of one mistake.”
“Home hero” Piastri excited to return to Melbourne in 2026
Having been born in Melbourne, Piastri was the weekend’s “home hero”, something which he described as being “nice” and like a dream come true.
“It’s nice to be the home hero. It’s something you kind of dream of as a kid, racing at home, being the one that most people support.”
While he described the city as supportive of their athletes and the sports hosted in their city, he stated that he believed that the passion for F1 was growing. He looks forward to returning to Melbourne to race in 2026.
“So it’s really special and yeah, I think Melbourne’s always been a city that gets behind any sport that comes here.
“But I think the passion for F1 is just growing and growing. So it was really cool to see how big the crowds were the whole weekend and I’m excited to get back next year.”
“The crowd deserved to have an Aussie on the podium” — Piastri
He explained that it was particularly pleasing to race in front of a home crowd knowing that he could fight for a championship title, and while he hopes that the grass is “a couple inches shorter” in 2026, he believes that there were still “a lot of positives” from his and McLaren’s Australian GP weekend. Piastri does, however, hope to finish a home race on the podium as he believes that the crowd deserves to have one of their own to cheer for.
“I think one thing we wanted to do this year was start stronger than we’ve started the last two years. I think today pretty emphatically showed that we mean business.
“If they could mow the grass about a couple of inches shorter, that might help me. No, I think it’s obviously a shame with how it went today. I felt like we deserved to have or the crowd deserved to have an Aussie on the podium to cheer for.
“So it obviously hurts at the moment that I can’t be up there. But I think for myself there’s still a lot of positives to try and take out today. I think if we’ve got a car like we had today in the future then hopefully we don’t have to wait too much longer.”
“Still plenty positives to take” despite disappointment in Melbourne
While Piastri is relieved to not have ended up out of the race like so many other drivers, he acknowledged that there would have been little that they could have done to prevent such an outcome.
“Probably not much more you could have done in that situation, you didn’t have enough track work to get there.”
Despite this, the Australian driver admitted that the race would remain a sore point for some time, though he did have some positive takeaways from the experience and is “happy with the job” done, for the most part, at the 2025 Australian GP.
“I think clearly it will hurt for a period of time. But I’m still happy with the job I did apart from that one lap. Those are incredibly tough conditions and I think we saw a lot of people struggling today. Not that that means I should struggle but I think there’s still plenty of positives to take.”
