Is Oscar Piastri no longer the ‘Iceman’ who makes no mistakes in F1?
The Australian McLaren driver has failed in the decisive moment of the F1 drivers’ championship.
After what happened at the end of the 2024 season of Formula 1with the car McLaren one step ahead of the rest and the problems he had Red Bull During the winter, the Woking team started as favorites to repeat the constructors’ championship in 2025 and add the drivers’ championship, the only doubt was which of the two drivers would be able to snatch the crown from Max Verstappen.
The British Lando Norris He seemed to have an advantage in the garage having finished second in the table the previous year and that is how the calendar began, until, on the fifth date, in Saudi Arabia, his teammate, the Australian Oscar Piastri He ousted him, after the Briton complicated his options by crashing in qualifying.
Piastri then became the favorite to claim the throne, given Lando’s failures at specific times and a Red Bull model that did not work, which ended up triggering an internal revolution in Milton Keynes to try to rescue the campaign and give Verstappen a better vehicle.
Piastri seemed comfortable in the leader’s chair, he won in Miami, was third in Emilia Romagna and in Monaco and won in Spain to take a lead of 10 points over his teammate and almost 50 over the four-time champion.
In Barcelona, the one from Oceania received the nickname ‘Ice Boy’ for staying cool in complicated situations during the competition weekends and in memory of the Finn. Kimi Raikkonenso far the last champion with Ferrari (2007), who is known as ‘Iceman’.
“I’m not sure I’d like to be known as ‘Ice Boy’, I think emotions are different at every moment, there have been qualifications or races where I haven’t been carefree and I’ve had a lot of feelings, but there are others where you go out and know that, if you do a good job, you can get the result you want, don’t get me wrong, it’s satisfying, but I’m not an emotional person,” he said in Spain.
In Canada came the clash between the McLarens, Lando abandoned and Oscar finished fourth to distance himself by 22 units, although after two consecutive victories for Norris, the difference was closed to eight when leaving Silverstone heading to Belgium, Hungary and the holidays.
After the summer break, the narrative in the top category changed in the Netherlands, when Piastri was first and his teammate had to retire due to a chassis problem, which left the Australian with a distance of 34 points in the standings; With the option of winning the title within reach, Lando’s failures and Verstappen at a distance, it was time for Oscar to demonstrate that cold character that had even led him to take the hit within his own factory and not settle for being the second wheel in the garage.
The real Oscar Piastri?
In Italy, Max shone and Norris barely scored three points, but in the next event, in Azerbaijan, Piastri showed that he is not as cold as he seems and that the pressure of being the leader of F1 can affect someone who is only in his third season at this level and is 24 years old.
On the complicated Baku street circuit, the Australian crashed his McLaren in qualifying and was forced to start ninth and the next day he skipped the start and crashed just in the sixth corner, becoming the only retirement on a day in which victory went to Verstappen.
“It was a strange weekend for Oscar with several uncharacteristic errors, but he is already processing what happened the weekend and taking notes towards the next appointment,” analyzed Andrea Stella, director of McLaren, in what seemed an extraordinary situation for someone who had never shown that face.
However, after Singapore, in Austin the pressure once again overcame Piastri, who collided with the German Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber) in the Sprint and then touched Norris’s car and caused both of them to retire, while Max was left with eight points; In qualifying he did not seem to calm down and the leader was sixth.
On Sunday the situation did not improve and he was fifth, almost 30 seconds behind Verstappen, while his teammate was second, so the Australian’s advantage in the table was reduced to 14 units, to begin with doubts regarding his ability to resist in first in the most important motorsport series on the planet.
In Mexico came confirmation of the fall of Piastri, who on Saturday was eighth, while his teammate swept the Hermanos Rodríguez and in a circuit where it is difficult to pass, his luck was marked by falling to ninth just at the start and although he managed to finish in fifth, he had to give up the lead, 15 rounds later.
“I don’t think the real Oscar has disappeared, it’s just been a couple of difficult weekends, with some lessons to learn. People can think what they want, but I know I still have what it takes to win the championship, there have been bumps in the road for everyone this year, at different times,” the Australian defended himself on F1.com.
In Brazil he was again left out of the Sprint after crashing into the wall on the fifth lap, but hours later he was able to recover to start fourth, although in the race he was once again in despair and when trying to pass the Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) he hit him, for which he received a 10-second penalty and was the fifth to see the checkered flag.
Leaving Interlagos, Piastri is 24 points from the top, with three weekends left, first with the action in Las Vegas and then the closing in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but those three consecutive fifth places have caused the Australian to lose the advantage and his consideration as a new ‘Iceman’.
“We have to concentrate on Las Vegas, a route that, on paper, is not the most favorable for us, the road to achieving our goals is still long and in Brazil we saw again that our main rival, Max Verstappen, can never be discounted,” assured Stella.
It is the pressure that has taken its toll on a young man who found himself with the opportunity to be champion early in his career, thanks to McLaren’s recent progress, the fall of Red Bull and its internal problems and the mistakes that Norris made early in the calendar.
Now those mistakes have been on Piastri’s side and at the worst moment, when he seemed to be heading for a surprising title, letting go a 34-point lead and seeing how Lando took advantage of them and even Verstappen returned in a desperate attempt to retain the scepter.
Piastri was not as cold as he thought and in the final moments he made mistakes, as has happened with other drivers in their first real chance to win in a series like F1.
The key for Oscar will be to try to recover in these last three dates, in which he will continue to have the best car on the grid and fight until the end to get into the history books of the top category, because with the rule change for 2026 perhaps he might not find himself in this situation again.
