The primary weekend of the 2025 System 1 season led to heartbreak for Oscar Piastri. The hometown favourite was working second within the Australian Grand Prix, however a slide into the grass throughout wet situations late within the race knocked him out of rivalry for a podium. Whereas Piastri managed to get again on observe and salvage a end within the factors, it was not how he needed to start his 2025 marketing campaign in entrance of his residence followers.
Piastri rebounded with a “satisfying,” and “full,” victory within the Chinese language Grand Prix.
Piastri captured pole place and led wire-to-wire, taking the win in entrance of teammate Lando Norris to present McLaren their fiftieth one-two end result of their storied F1 historical past. The defending Constructors’ Champions are off to an amazing begin in 2025, with Norris profitable in Australia and now Piastri taking the victory in Shanghai.
‘Yeah, very satisfying,” started Piastri within the FIA Press Convention. “Clearly, I feel, you realize, it’s at all times a fairly good day whenever you cross the road first, that’s apparent. However I feel for me this has been essentially the most satisfying, not simply race, however weekend for myself.
“You already know, I feel the 2 wins I had beforehand had been very completely different, and I feel this one’s been essentially the most full. So I’m very, very pleased with the entire effort of the entire staff this weekend,” added the Australian driver. “I feel we began with a automotive that was fast, however fairly tough at instances, and I feel we did job of making an attempt to deal with that. And to come back away with this end result is an ideal finish to the weekend.”
Whereas many anticipated the excessive ranges of tire degradation would require drivers to implement a two-stop technique, Piastri was among the many many within the prime ten who made a one-stop race work. Piastri began on the medium compound, and after switching to the hards ran the ultimate 42 laps of the race on that set of tires for the win.
The Australian driver admitted he was “pleasantly stunned” that the arduous compound fared in addition to it did.
“I feel already on the Medium it was simpler than within the Dash, however I feel the Onerous behaved significantly better than all of us anticipated. I feel George might need a special reply on that, however definitely for me, I went into it considering it could be a two-stop after which even early within the race I nonetheless thought that, and was pleasantly stunned that the Onerous was as robust because it was,” described Piastri.
Nonetheless, earlier than the race started there was each expectation that the Chinese language Grand Prix can be a two-stop affair, based mostly on what we noticed within the F1 Dash race. What we additionally noticed in that 19-lap scrap was that Lewis Hamilton was capable of keep away from the extreme tire degradation by beginning in pole place, sustaining P1, and working in clear air.
Piastri admitted that he needed to carry onto P1 after the beginning for that very motive.
“I imply, I used to be very blissful to come back by Flip 1 within the lead. I might have been fairly aggravated if I wasn’t,” started Piastri.
“In order that was fairly essential for the primary a part of the race, particularly provided that we didn’t actually know if it was going to be a one- or a two-stop at that time,” added the McLaren driver. “And the way important with the ability to dictate the tempo appeared yesterday within the Dash—I used to be clearly blissful to maintain the lead.”
He additionally outlined that he has been snug all weekend lengthy.
“I feel this weekend’s been perhaps much less emotional than the primary two wins I’ve had, however positively extra satisfying,” mentioned Piastri.
“I feel it’s been a weekend the place I’ve been fairly snug, been assured in what I wanted to do and the way I’ve been driving. And I feel the race right this moment was … I nonetheless needed to push and hold my foot on the gasoline, as a result of the hole, other than the previous few laps, was by no means that massive behind,” he added. “So I at all times needed to carry on my toes, however I really feel like I simply managed the race nicely after I wanted to, and pushed after I wanted to.
“So yeah, simply very pleased with how the entire weekend’s turned out.”
