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Oscar Piastri is not ruling out Max Verstappen as a title contender for 2025, though he insists he is not overly concerned. Speaking to the media, including Sportskeeda, after the Azerbaijan GP, the Australian stressed the importance of improving his own performances and bouncing back strongly in the coming races.
Before Baku, Verstappen trailed Piastri by 109 points, but that gap has now closed to 69. With seven races remaining, the Dutchman has not only a mathematical chance but a realistic shot at keeping himself in the title fight. The Melbourne-born driver endured a nightmare weekend, crashing out in qualifying before retiring from the race, while Verstappen dominated with pole position and victory.
While acknowledging Verstappen’s threat, Piastri maintained his focus lies on raising his own level rather than worrying about rivals. He suggested the Dutchman’s charge could even work in his favour, depending on how the battle unfolds, but stressed that consistency and performance on his side of the garage would be decisive in shaping the championship outcome.
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Asked if he was worried about Verstappen being a title-deciding factor, if not a contender, Oscar Piastri said:
“Yes and no. I mean, you can go both ways for you, you know, if Max is in the middle of us and I'm ahead, then it's good for me. If it's the opposite way around, then it's bad for me. So, there's, you know, positive and negatives to that. But ultimately, I want to make sure that my performances are at the level that they should be, and then, oh, you know, let the rest play out as a will.”
Asked if he was worried about Red Bull's Verstappen closing the gap in the championship, he added:
“I don't know. I'm not going to rule him out, but I'm honestly not too concerned with that. I'm just trying to bounce back from this weekend and put in the best performances that I can and I know that if I get back to where I know I can be, then I'll be I'll be more than okay, so that's what I'm going to focus manage.”
Oscar Piastri also admitted to committing noticeable blunders during the Azerbaijan GP weekend.
Oscar Piastri admits to making too many mistakes throughout the 2025 Azerbaijan GP weekend
Oscar Piastri admitted there had been too many driving errors on his part over the Azerbaijan GP weekend. The 23-year-old felt he lacked momentum and struggled to piece together clean sessions, stressing that the key now was to ensure those mistakes were not repeated. Explaining the incident that forced his retirement, the McLaren driver confessed to locking up and sliding into the barriers at Turn 6. Piastri refused to attribute the crash to external factors, instead accepting full responsibility and describing it as an unfortunate driver error.
Asked what happened at Turn 6, Oscar Piastri replied:
“No, just locked up and went off."
Asked if the car felt different or was not to his liking, he replied:
“No, there's not been anything that different, anything for me that's.. You know, it depends how you want to look at that, I guess, but for me, you know, if I felt like I was in a completely different headspace, then it's kind of easier to blame it on that and also a problem to rectify, I guess. But this weekends felt like any other weekend, just unfortunately, has been far too many mistakes through from start to finish. You know, every single session has been messy. So, yeah, just trying to clean that up is the important thing for the future.”
Oscar Piastri continues to lead the Drivers’ Championship on 324 points, with Lando Norris second on 299. Despite the Australian crashing out in both qualifying and the race, his only consolation from the Baku weekend was that his teammate and closest title rival failed to fully capitalise. Norris qualified seventh and finished in the same position, collecting just six points on a weekend where he could have significantly closed the gap. Instead, it was Max Verstappen who made the most of the chaos. The four-time world champion, previously 109 points adrift, is now just 69 behind Piastri and 44 off Norris, putting himself firmly back into the title picture.
