Returning to the track where he took his maiden Formula 1 win last year, Oscar Piastri was only able to finish the 2025 F1 Hungarian GP in second place. The Australian driver qualified in second behind Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. In the end, Piastri lost the race to his McLaren teammate.
After the Hungarian GP, Piastri spoke on his input on the pit stop decisions throughout the race and whether he would approach the race differently in hindsight.
Conflicting emotions after missing win
The Hungarian GP marks Piastri’s 12th podium so far in the 2025 season. The Australian driver has been impressively consistent, having only missed out on two podium finishes.
Piastri was asked his thoughts on this statistic after the race. The current championship leader seemed disappointed that this podium finish was not on the top step once again.
“Mixed, I would say. Whenever you lose a race by such a little amount, it’s obviously a bit painful, but I mean, I’m sure it was entertaining from the outside. It was entertaining from the inside as well. So, you know, pretty fun race, all things considered. But, obviously, when you’re on the losing side of that battle, it’s a little bit difficult.”
Though disappointed with the overall result, Piastri still managed to take some positives.
“We tried our best, I think, and, you know, we got ahead of Charles. I don’t know what happened to him in the last stint, but, yeah, some things to look back on, whether we should have done something a bit different in terms of strategy, but very easy to say in hindsight.”
Fought hard to catch Norris
In the closing stages of the race, the two McLarens were fighting each other for the win. Norris, who lost two positions in the opening lap of the race, opted for an unusual one-stop strategy for the Hungarian GP. Meanwhile, Piastri maintained P2 at the start and followed a two-stop strategy.
By the end of the race, Piastri was chasing Norris for the win but eventually ran out of laps. The Australian driver spoke on the challenge of racing for the lead on this type of track.
“I was confident, but I knew it was going to be still incredibly tough because getting close to the car ahead is one thing, but trying to overtake is a completely different story. I knew that I was catching him a lot when I had clean air, but as soon as I got close, it was incredibly tough to stay close enough.
“There are so many corners in the middle sector that in some cases it almost feels like you do a better job in some corners, and then you pay the price at the next one because you’re even closer. That made it very tough. And then with such long corners to end the lap, it just kills any downforce you’ve got. So, I knew that was going to be incredibly tough.”
As the chequered flag waved, Piastri crossed the line within a second of his teammate. Despite such a close finish, Piastri doubted whether he would have been able to take the win even if there was a higher lap count.
“Even if I had more laps, I’m not sure the result would have been any different, but I certainly tried.”
Did his lock up take the win away?
In the penultimate lap of the F1 Hungarian GP, Piastri attempted to overtake Norris but locked up big time. The Australian driver responded to how much it prevented him from another attempt at taking the lead.
“Not that much, I don’t think. I was able to close the gap again pretty quickly for the last lap. But it’s kind of like I said, getting to within six or seven tenths was doable, but to then get even closer than that, I think I needed brand new softs to be able to do much from that point. So yeah, it was always going to be tough when I got close.”
He then went on to talk about his mindset during the last laps, particularly not wanting to delay his move.
“You never want to not take an opportunity that you think is there in case another one never comes up. So, I had to go for it and, you know, in hindsight, obviously you can say maybe I should have waited another lap, but I’m pretty convinced that even if I had waited one more lap, it wouldn’t have changed anything.”
Was the two-stop strategy the right call?
In the end, Piastri’s McLaren teammate was victorious with a one-stop strategy. Reflecting on his and the team’s decision to follow a two-stop, Piastri stuck with his decision as he was focused on racing Leclerc, who was in the lead at the time.
“I think we had to try and do something to beat Leclerc because it wasn’t obvious that we just had enough pace to blow past him and go and win that way. So, we tried something. Was it the right thing in the end? I don’t know. But it’s always much easier when you’re the car behind to take that risk.”
Piastri was understanding that Norris was in a different scenario to him. Having qualified behind Piastri and lost places in the opening lap, Piastri believed it was sensible for Norris to experiment with strategy.
“For Lando, there was virtually nothing to lose by trying a one-stop race. For myself, potentially there was. And, yeah, we’ll look back and see if there was anything we should have done differently. But a two-stop was always the plan before the race, so it wasn’t even really discussed that much about doing a one-stop. So, it was certainly a gamble.”
Piastri then revealed that he had also considered a one-stop strategy before the start of the F1 Hungarian GP.
“We did speak about it a bit before the race, so it wasn’t completely off the table. But, in the race, I got asked about it. Very difficult to know from the cockpit what is going to be the best thing to do. Like I said, when you’re the car behind, your risk-reward ratio is always much different. So yeah, there’s always that.
“Could we have matched Lando? That’s, I guess, the question that I don’t have the answer to. So, I guess that’s the only thing. But we wanted to try and win the race as well, and the best way of trying to beat Lando is by trying to win the race as well. That was obviously an intention, but I think we’ll definitely analyse if there was something we could have done a bit differently.”
