Piastri has ‘a lot of confidence’ in ability to win the title as he reflects on battle with Norris

Oscar Piastri has admitted that he has “a lot of confidence” in himself when it comes to his chances of winning the World Championship, though the Australian also suggested “it’s not going to be easy” amid close competition from team mate Lando Norris.

After Norris closed the gap by taking back-to-back victories in Austria and Great Britain, Piastri strengthened his lead in the standings by winning the Belgian Grand Prix last time out, meaning that he now holds a 16-point advantage over his fellow McLaren driver.

Asked ahead of this weekend’s race in Hungary if he views the title fight as being just between himself and Norris by this point, Piastri responded: “I suppose so. The last few weekends it’s been Lando and I.

“I expect our competition to still be strong and put up a good fight, especially at certain tracks through the rest of the year, but whether that comes from Max [Verstappen] or Ferrari or Mercedes or someone else, we never really know.

“I’m not too concerned about what happens in that, I’m just trying to win each race and extend the lead. I think clearly Lando and I are in the same car, which is the best, and he’s naturally going to be the most competition.”

Piastri was then pushed on whether he feels confident enough that he will win the championship, to which the eight-time race winner answered: “I think I have a lot of confidence in myself that I can do it.

“Not every weekend has been perfect, but there’s not many weekends in my whole life that have been perfect. I think just trying to put together a solid, consistent year is ultimately going to be an important thing.

“I think the pace in the last few weekends, especially Spa, I’ve been very confident in and I’m very proud of, and I think I’m more than capable of continuing that for the rest of the year. I’m confident that I can do it, but it’s not going to be easy.”

In terms of whether being the fastest or making the fewest mistakes will count more in the title battle, Piastri conceded that “both ideally” are needed.

“You can make an argument for either one – you can be consistent, but if you’re consistently coming second then that’s not very useful for you, so you do need to have both,” he explained.

“At the level of the field and the level of my team mate, you need to bring your best, and evidently when you’re pushing that hard there are going to be mistakes here and there, because it doesn’t come without that risk.

“But you can’t just afford to take things easy – you’ve got to try and be consistent, you need to push and you need to be quick, and then of course you try and execute as best as you can. You need both to win the championship – you can’t just rely on one.”

This weekend sees Piastri return to the scene of his first Grand Prix victory 12 months ago, a race that saw him lead home a McLaren 1-2 after Norris belatedly handed back the lead following a change in positions during the pit stop phase.

Asked if he expects the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix to once again be a fight between himself and Norris, Piastri reflected: “I don’t know. Hungary has been historically a good track for us as a team in the two years that I’ve been with the team, so I expect us to be strong again this weekend.

“But there’s been tracks this year where we thought we would be very strong against our competition and they were closer than we thought, and there’s been other tracks where we thought our competition would be very close and actually the gap was bigger than we thought.

“You never know, but I expect us to still be at the front.”

And while last year’s event may have been a slightly tricky moment for the squad in terms of executing that team order, Piastri believes that it also showed the positive dynamic within McLaren, as well as between himself and Norris.

“It underlined the good nature in the team,” said Piastri. “It was obviously a slightly awkward situation, but I think it kind of highlighted that we will do the right thing in all circumstances, or ideally all circumstances when we’re on track.

“I think it just showed the trust that we have with the team and with each other as well, that things will be put the right way.”