Oscar Piastri picked over Lando Norris for 2025 F1 Championship by Bernie Ecclestone

McLaren star Oscar Piastri has been picked by F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone as the one to win the 2025 drivers' world championship. Ecclestone has backed Piastri over the latter's prolific teammate, Lando Norris.

The Woking-based outfit has had the best-performing challenger this year. As a result, Oscar Piastri is currently leading the drivers' standings with 284 points, whereas Lando Norris is not too far behind, having also put on board 275 points.

In the process of amassing these results, Piastri has scored six Grand Prix wins in comparison to Norris's five. A lot has been said about the duo's fierce tussle at the front end of the pack. With the sport at a halt amid the ongoing summer break, Bernie Ecclestone has given his vote of confidence to Piastri.

In an interaction with the Swiss-German outlet Blick, Ecclestone said, via PlanetF1:

"I bet on the Australian after just three races! He goes his own way, and is mentally far superior to Norris."

Interestingly, in Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris' most recent tussle at the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, the latter was able to get the better of Piastri. The Australian driver tried his best in the closing stages of the race to overtake Norris, but just wasn't able to do so.

The 2025 F1 season is 14 rounds down, and there are only 10 Grand Prix events remaining on the race calendar, starting with next week's Dutch Grand Prix. Last year's edition of the Zandvoort race was won by Lando Norris.

"The pressure is only going to increase": Oscar Piastri on second half of 2025

F1 Grand Prix Of Hungary - Source: Getty

While Bernie Ecclestone has given the nod to Oscar Piastri in the 2025 championship fight, the latter has also come up with his take. Piastri believed that during the upcoming second half of the F1 campaign, the pressure would increase.

Piastri understood that he was only nine points ahead of Lando Norris in the title fight, and with 10 races remaining, the margin of error was going to be very less. Piastri added, via McLaren:

"Obviously, you don’t want to give away points, but it has been far too early to be thinking of the season in that way. At this stage, you just want to go into the weekend trying to get the most out of it as you can, rather than thinking of the Championship overall.

"So yes, I think I’ve handled it well, but I haven’t concentrated on it much. The pressure is only going to increase from here. When we get to the latter part of the year, that is when the pressure will ramp up."

Both Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are chasing their maiden F1 drivers' championship this year.