Oscar Piastri has opened up about the significance of self-belief in a technical sport like F1, his prospects of becoming a world champion in the near future, his performance at the 2026 Japanese GP, and his overall approach to racing.
Despite leading the drivers’ championship for the majority of the rounds in 2025, Piastri finished the season in third place. His title charge slowly unravelled following his Lap 1 crash at the Azerbaijan GP, and he ultimately fell short by 13 points in the Abu Dhabi season finale.
The start to Piastri’s 2026 campaign has undoubtedly been challenging, as he currently sits in sixth place in the standings. Following his shock crash during the reconnaissance lap at Albert Park, he was unable to start Sunday’s race in China due to a technical issue.
Although his championship chances appear to be slim right now, Piastri has at least had the upper hand over teammate Lando Norris in all three Grand Prix qualifying sessions and the race in Japan.
Piastri on what a driver requires to become F1 world champion
In an interview with Jake Humphrey on the High Performance podcast, Oscar Piastri spoke at length about whether he believes he will become an F1 world champion one day.
Responding in the affirmative, the Australian nonetheless explained that he doesn’t dwell on the hypotheticals of a successful championship campaign. Stating how both driver skill and competitive machinery are imperative to mounting a solid title charge, he remarked that a driver’s belief in his own capabilities isn’t enough to compensate for the lack of a fast and reliable car.
“I think so, yes. Again, I guess I may be a little bit different in that I don’t spend that much time thinking about the kind of, or I try not to anyway, about the hypotheticals or, you know, of course I want to become a Formula 1 world champion, but I try and look at it from a very realistic point of view.
“And that’s a combination of, you know, I need to do my job, but in this sport, for good or bad, if you don’t have the car to achieve it, then you can kind of believe you’re going to be a Formula 1 world champion all you want.
“But if you don’t have the best car or one of the best cars, then again, you can believe that it’s going to happen all you want, but it’s probably not going to happen.”
The significance of the 2026 Japanese GP for the Australian
Emphasising how his ambition is grounded in reality, Oscar Piastri revealed that he prefers to measure his F1 race weekends by the performance he extracts from the car rather than the total haul of points.
Touching on his second-place finish at the 2026 Japanese GP, Piastri proclaimed that he considers his Suzuka podium more satisfactory than half of all the victories he has achieved in the sport so far.
“So, I think for me, that’s more where I come from, is just that sense of realism. And I’m a big believer in just trying to do the most with what you’ve got.
“And, you know, take Suzuka this year, for example. You know, you look at it in the history books in 10 years and say, ‘okay, I finished second and at this point I’ve won nine F1 races.’
“But honestly, I would probably put that second place higher in my list of personal achievements than probably 50% of those wins that I’ve had so far.”
Piastri’s approach to racing in F1
Asked why he has placed the 2026 Japanese GP weekend so high on his list of personal accomplishments, Oscar Piastri highlighted how he had extracted the full potential of the MCL40 in spite of crossing the line nearly 14 seconds behind Kimi Antonelli. Furthermore, he maintained that a driver has to set their priorities straight to keep themselves motivated on the track.
“Just because I know that I didn’t leave anything on the table on that weekend. I got the absolute most out of myself from practice. I got very close to the absolute most in qualifying; I got the absolute most out of the race. And we were quick enough to finish second. Me and the car and the team. That was all we had.
“And again, the history books would say I got beaten by 15 seconds. But, you know, that’s where our sport is a little bit funny and where you have to be very disciplined in kind of focusing on the right things.”
Noting how contentment is a crucial factor that shapes his perception of an F1 race weekend, Piastri reiterated that his approach to racing entails pulling out all the stops in his control instead of just assigning relevance to the numbers in the final race classification.
“Because, again, I left that weekend happier than I probably left half the races I’ve won in my career.
“And that’s a really big, important factor for me, is making sure you leave every weekend knowing that you’ve done absolutely everything that you can, regardless of whether you’ve won the race, whether you’ve finished 10th, whether you’ve finished 15th even.
“As long as you can leave the weekend knowing that I did absolutely everything I could in my control, that’s good enough for me.”
