Early into the Formula One season, Oscar Piastri is racing into contention to become Australia's next F1 champion.
Australia hasn’t had an F1 champion since Alan Jones in 1980, meaning 2025 would mark 45 years since an Australian has held one of motorsport's most prestigious titles.
In recent times, the only two Australian drivers to come close to championship glory are Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo. Both failed to achieve the feat.
Coming off a Constructors’ Championship in 2024, the McLaren team seems poised to retain its status as the top team in F1, but the question remains whether it can secure the Drivers’ Championship.
Last year’s champion and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen would hope to spoil McLarens' title hopes again, as despite their team success last year, neither of the McLaren drivers was able to beat Verstappen to the Drivers' Championship.
Despite standing level for the most wins this season, a poor showing in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix resulted in Piastri falling behind his championship rivals.
The event was marked by unusual circumstances, as rain made its first appearance at the race since 2010. It was also the first time Melbourne has served as the F1 season opener since 2019.
This combination of factors resulted in an incident-filled race, as six drivers failed to make it to the chequered flag.
Piastri was in contention to win the race but became stuck in the grass at turn 12 of the Albert Park circuit. The incident occurred on lap 44 of 58 after a sudden rain shower caused him to run wide.
Although Piastri managed to get his car going again and recovered back to ninth place, the mistake still cost him dearly.
The story was different in the next race in China. Piastri qualified on pole (first on the grid) and secured a convincing win over his teammate to give him his first victory of the season.
The dominant performance marked only the third time Piastri had stood on the top step of the podium.
Heading into the third round in Japan, Piastri would look to continue his strong form from the previous race. In order to shake up the standings, Piastri was gunning to finish ahead of Verstappen and Norris.
But the Japanese Grand Prix turned out to be uneventful, as the top six drivers finished the race in the same positions they had started.
Piastri qualified third behind his teammate, with Verstappen on pole. As a result, Piastri was unable to make any inroads on his rivals, while Verstappen took his first win of the year, with an eye to achieving his fifth World Drivers' Championship.
Piastri was able to follow up his lacklustre Japanese Grand Prix with a pole position on the Saturday of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, championship rivals Norris and Verstappen struggled in qualifying and started the race in sixth and seventh respectively. Piastri was able to use his favourable qualifying to win the race, while Norris finished in third and Verstappen in sixth.
The victory, akin to his dominant performance in China, propelled Piastri up to second in the standings, ahead of Verstappen.
A slightly controversial win for Piastri in the following round in Saudi Arabia saw him finally snatch the title lead from his rivals.
As a result, an Australian driver now leads the championship for the first time since Webber in 2010.
During the race, a penalty was given to Verstappen due to an incident between him and Piastri on the opening lap. This saw Piastri overtake Verstappen during the first set of pit stops, as Verstappen had to serve a 5-second time penalty.
Only 10 points separate Piastri, on 99 points, and Norris on 89, after five races with Verstappen sitting behind on 87 points.
Piastri will be looking on to the Miami Grand Prix to reaffirm his title hopes.
A victory in Miami would gain Piastri 25 valuable points and put him firmly ahead in the conversation to take home the championship trophy later this year.
