The first weekend of the 2025 Formula 1 season ended in heartbreak for Oscar Piastri. The hometown favorite was running second in the Australian Grand Prix, but a slide into the grass during rainy conditions late in the race knocked him out of contention for a podium. While Piastri managed to get back on track and salvage a finish in the points, it was not how he wanted to begin his 2025 campaign in front of his home fans.
Piastri rebounded with a “satisfying,” and “complete,” victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Piastri captured pole position and led wire-to-wire, taking the win in front of teammate Lando Norris to give McLaren their 50th one-two result in their storied F1 history. The defending Constructors’ Champions are off to a tremendous start in 2025, with Norris winning in Australia and now Piastri taking the victory in Shanghai.
‘Yeah, very satisfying,” began Piastri in the FIA Press Conference. “Obviously, I think, you know, it’s always a pretty good day when you cross the line first, that’s obvious. But I think for me this has been the most satisfying, not just race, but weekend for myself.
“You know, I think the two wins I had previously were very different, and I think this one’s been the most complete. So I’m very, very happy with the whole effort of the whole team this weekend,” added the Australian driver. “I think we started with a car that was quick, but pretty tricky at times, and I think we did a good job of trying to tackle that. And to come away with this result is a perfect end to the weekend.”
While many expected the high levels of tire degradation would require drivers to implement a two-stop strategy, Piastri was among the many in the top ten who made a one-stop race work. Piastri started on the medium compound, and after switching to the hards ran the final 42 laps of the race on that set of tires for the win.
The Australian driver admitted he was “pleasantly surprised” that the hard compound fared as well as it did.
“I think already on the Medium it was easier than in the Sprint, but I think the Hard behaved much better than we all expected. I think George might have a different answer on that, but certainly for me, I went into it thinking it would be a two-stop and then even early in the race I still thought that, and was pleasantly surprised that the Hard was as strong as it was,” described Piastri.
However, before the race began there was every expectation that the Chinese Grand Prix would be a two-stop affair, based on what we saw in the F1 Sprint race. What we also saw in that 19-lap scrap was that Lewis Hamilton was able to avoid the severe tire degradation by starting in pole position, maintaining P1, and running in clean air.
Piastri admitted that he wanted to hold onto P1 after the start for that very reason.
“I mean, I was very happy to come through Turn 1 in the lead. I would have been pretty annoyed if I wasn’t,” began Piastri.
“So that was pretty crucial for the first part of the race, especially given that we didn’t really know if it was going to be a one- or a two-stop at that point,” added the McLaren driver. “And how critical being able to dictate the pace looked yesterday in the Sprint—I was obviously happy to keep the lead.”
He also outlined that he has been comfortable all weekend long.
“I think this weekend’s been maybe less emotional than the first two wins I’ve had, but definitely more satisfying,” said Piastri.
“I think it’s been a weekend where I’ve been quite comfortable, been confident in what I needed to do and how I’ve been driving. And I think the race today was … I still had to push and keep my foot on the gas, because the gap, apart from the last few laps, was never that big behind,” he added. “So I always had to keep on my toes, but I feel like I just managed the race well when I needed to, and pushed when I needed to.
“So yeah, just very happy with how the whole weekend’s turned out.”
