Formula 1 News: Three F1 stars predict Piastri title in 2025

(GMM) Three former Formula 1 drivers agree that Oscar Piastri has become the clear favorite to win the 2025 world championship given the McLaren is superior, and Red Bull have produced another sled.

With Red Bull and the Dutchman beginning to acknowledge that Max Verstappen beating the dominant McLarens is now unlikely, the contest is slowly becoming a clear Piastri versus Lando Norris affair.

Christian Klien, a former Jaguar and Red Bull driver, is impressed with 24-year-old Piastri’s poise and speed this year.

“We mustn’t forget that Piastri is only in his third season in Formula 1,” he is quoted as saying by motorsport-total.com. “And yet he is demonstrating incredible composure.

“He’s also a very fast learner, which you can clearly see in comparison with Norris. Lando is an incredibly fast driver, but under the pressure of Piastri he is gradually falling apart.”

In conversation with Bild newspaper, another former F1 star – David Coulthard – was asked if he agrees with the statement that Piastri and Verstappen appear cut from the same cloth – cold and ruthless in contrast to the cuddlier Norris.

“Lando learned a lesson from last year’s world championship battle,” the Scot replied. “I think he’s become mentally stronger. And there’s no doubt that he’s fast. The stopwatch doesn’t lie.

“But the mental side of it is a constant topic for him, because he’s so open about it. And those who share a lot also get asked a lot. Oscar does what Kimi Raikkonen and Mika Hakkinen did – stay silent.”

Coulthard, however, disagrees with the German newspaper that 2025 is now a three-way battle between Norris, Piastri and Verstappen.

“I don’t have a crystal ball,” he said, “but I think Max has been seeing it as a one-on-one battle since the first corner in Saudi Arabia.

“When Max tried to overtake Oscar on the outside – as he did so often last year with Lando – the latter held his ground coldly. Oscar showed Max ‘I’m not Lando, you know’.

“From that moment on, Max knew it would be a 50-50 duel.”

Meanwhile, Ralf Schumacher thinks McLaren will sooner rather than later have to conclude that the strict policy of driver equality will not lead to the 2025 drivers’ title.

“I’d like to wait a little longer,” he told Sky Deutschland, “but I think Piastri has been consistently at his best – except in Monaco, where perhaps a little more was expected from him.

“But I do think the world championship will be decided internally before the summer break. If Norris continues to be behind Piastri and Max consistently exerts pressure, then at some point McLaren will have to pull the ripcord and say ‘ok, we need to concentrate on just one of them’.

“I think it will happen soon, because they don’t want to lose the drivers’ title again – that would be incredible for McLaren this year. The constructors’ title is in the bag, so it’s just about the drivers’ now.