In the battle for Formula 1’s drivers’ championship, as in the first turn at the Jeddah street circuit, two into one simply does not fit.
But Oscar Piastri’s fight for position against four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen in the opening seconds of the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix early Monday morning (AEST) showed that the baby-faced assassin from bayside Melbourne could yet emerge with the biggest title in world motor sport.
Until Piastri’s race win on Monday, the last Australian to lead the F1 world championship was Mark Webber – now Piastri’s manager – for Red Bull in 2010.
But where Webber and the ever-popular wearer of the thousand-watt smile, Daniel Ricciardo, fell short, Piastri is set to conquer.
As brilliant as Webber and Ricciardo both were, with 17 grand prix victories between them, they were always playing second fiddle to their title-contending teammates at Red Bull – first Sebastian Vettel, and then Verstappen. They weren’t No.1 in their own team; how could they be No.1 in the world?
But McLaren’s “papaya rules” are set to allow Piastri the best shot at what no Australian has achieved since Alan Jones with Williams 45 years ago – winning the F1 drivers’ title.
Oscar Piastri celebrates his win.Credit: AP
In a nutshell, papaya rules mean that Piastri and teammate Lando Norris can go head-to-head – no one driver is prioritised over the other. McLaren are backing both drivers in equally.
Before qualifying for Monday’s race in Jeddah McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown told the host broadcaster Sky that it was inevitable his drivers would make contact on the track this season. He said he wasn’t worried about when – not if – it happens because it would be a racing incident.
And this season, it looks like Piastri, not Norris, will come out on top.
Norris, still only 25, finished second in last year’s drivers’ standings to Verstappen in a car that, by the end of the season, was the fastest on the grid and gave a glimpse into just what 2025 had in store. And he started this year in brilliant fashion, storming to victory in Piastri’s home race after the local boy spun off the track in the wet.
In winning the following race in China, Piastri showed he’s a goldfish – in the world of Ted Lasso where Ted tells his players to move on from bad experiences, like the animal with a notoriously short memory – while Norris is an elephant. He’s shown as much pace as Piastri this season, if not more, but it’s Piastri who emerged from Jeddah not just with race glory, but a 10-point margin in the drivers’ standings. Norris’ confidence has wavered since Melbourne, while Piastri’s has grown.
He embodies the perfect mix of maturity, self-belief and calm, while Norris was still bemoaning his qualifying crash even after his masterful drive to recover from 10th to finish fourth.
Piastri, meanwhile, turned whatever disappointment he may’ve had at missing out on pole into an iron will to refuse to relent into turn one and, ultimately, his fifth grand prix victory. He got a better start than Verstappen off the line, led down the inside into turn one, and the only way Verstappen could stay in front was to leave the track. The race stewards saw it and slugged Verstappen with a five-second penalty that he needn’t have served if he gave the on-track position straight back.
Piastri won by about 2.8 seconds.
His only comments over his team radio that made it to air about the incident during the race were: “He [Verstappen] needs to give that back – I was ahead” and “he was never going to make that corner – regardless of whether I was there or not.” He said them without a hint of emotion, or distraction from the task at hand, but after the race, in speaking to another former star racer who could never quite climb the championship mountain, David Coulthard, Piastri said: “Once I got on the inside [of Verstappen on lap one], I wasn’t coming out of turn one in second.
“Obviously the stewards had to get involved, but I thought I was plenty far enough up, and in the end that’s what got me the race.”
Speaking on 3AW later on Monday morning in the wash-up of the race, Nicole Piastri gave a further insight into what makes her son tick.
“The most animated I ever see Oscar is when he’s at home with his sisters playing Mario Kart and they’re beating him – that’s about the only thing that gets him riled up that I know of.”
For Piastri, it looks like when, not if, he wins the world title, and it might just be this year.
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