Immediately after the season-ending Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix, the three key combatants were ushered way from the noise and mayhem of the circuit to relax on a plush sofa behind the podium for a moment.
After spending most of the last 90 minutes racing at an average of 200km/h with a 1.6-litre, V6-hybrid engine screaming behind them, a more incongruous setting you could not imagine.
But it was here that Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris sat, largely in companionable silence.
Perhaps they were processing the 58 laps of excruciatingly tense racing they had just competed against each other.
Perhaps they were exhausted from the tension of the past few days and hours.
Perhaps they were casting their minds over the thousands of kilometres and 24 rounds of races that brought them to this point in the first place.
For the two drivers who came so close, perhaps they were wondering what might have been.
Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri both had their chances to win the title. (Getty Images: Clive Rose)
This is a season that has taken the Formula 1 circus from Melbourne in March to Abu Dhabi in December, crisscrossing the world in the battle for global supremacy.
In the end, after so many ups and downs, the three key protagonists in the closest world title race for 15 years could only be separated by 13 measly points.
It was Norris who claimed his first title after eight years in Formula 1, just two points ahead of four-time champion Verstappen, with Piastri third after their nerve-racking Abu Dhabi Grand Prix battle.
Piastri was, amid the fireworks and tears, the blaring music and supporters’ cheers, the first man over to his teammate to congratulate him on his win.
But in his heart, he may be wondering where it went wrong for him and why those roles were not reversed.
Of the three drivers to have led the championship this year, none did so for longer than Piastri.
For 15 consecutive race weekends between Saudi Arabia and Mexico, the Aussie led the pack. After the Dutch Grand Prix in round 15, Piastri led the world title race by 34 points, with Verstappen a whopping 104 points further back.
How then, from there, did he lose it so dramatically?
Lando Norris got the chocolates this time around. Will next time be Oscar Piastri’s turn? (Getty Images: Clive Mason)
Piastri had won five of the first nine races. Then, he won two of the next six, including at Zandvoort at the Dutch Grand Prix, the first race after the summer break, where Norris did not score any points at all
But then, Piastri went off the boil — he didn’t win any of the last nine races of the year and missed the podium in six of them.
So where did the wheels fall off?
Was it at Monza at the Italian Grand Prix? It was there that Piastri was controversially asked to hand a position back to Norris after the British driver had a bad pit stop.
Yes, Norris had, reluctantly, done the same for Piastri at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2024, which was Piastri’s first-ever win in Formula 1.
It led to plenty of people suggesting that McLaren were favouring the Englishman over the Australian — an inferiority complex based on the painful experiences of Mark Webber being summarily relegated to second fiddle by Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo’s Verstappen woes — and that no matter how good Australian drivers are, they have to be better than their European counterparts to ever get an opportunity to fight for the biggest prize.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri promise plenty of battles to come. (Getty Images: Â Formula 1/Bryn Lennon)
Whether McLaren were favouring one driver or the other — and outside of Australia the prevailing view is that they were not — the Monza mashup clearly unsettled Piastri.
He would go on to call it “the worst weekend I’ve ever had in racing” after all and, the very next race in Azerbaijan, during an error-strewn weekend, Piastri crashed and retired on the first lap, his only race retirement of the season.
He finished off the podium at the next four races in Singapore, Austin, Mexico and Brazil, before both McLarens were disqualified at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, making for a rough six race weekends in a row.
Former racer and commentator Martin Brundle noted that there were a number of moments outside what he called Piastri’s “fallow period” late in the season, which it was noted came just as people began talking about him as a genuine title favourite.
Oscar Piastri’s bash in Baku was a major error of judgement that cost him valuable points. (Getty Images: Rudy Carezzevoli)
But he noted that there were subtle missed opportunities or mistakes throughout the season that all added up to issues.
“One rainy corner in his backyard in Melbourne, he was so unlucky to go off onto the grass and lose so many points there,” Brundle noted.Â
Piastri lost control in the wet when running in the top few positions and dropped to 13th before recovering to finish ninth.
Then there were the two “hard penalties” that Piastri had to serve at Silverstone and in Brazil, the first for “erratic braking” under the safety car, which led to Verstappen briefly overtaking him while preparing for the restart, the second for causing an accident when he locked up and crashed into Kimi Antonelli.
Those penalties meant he finished second in Britain and fifth in Brazil, dropping more valuable points.
“Those could easily have been mitigated,” Brundle said, suggesting that they could have been reduced to five-second infringements or not penalised at all.
Add the Vegas disqualification and the Qatar pit stop error — both mistakes by his team that Piastri had nothing to do with — and you can see why he’d feel hard done by.
But realistically, these mistakes are just the ebb and flow of a hard-fought season that takes place over the course of 10 gruelling months.
“There are a number of little turning points,” Brundle said.Â
“You can’t change that. He needs to work where he needs to be stronger … and draw a line under it.Â
“Easier said than done.”
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri hugged each other at the end. (Getty Images: Clive Rose)
Easier said then done knowing that, with new regulations coming in next year, there is no guarantee that McLaren will again be the dominant car they were this campaign.
McLaren’s return to the top of Formula 1 has not been an overnight sensation — their 2024 constructors title was a first in 26 years.Â
Just because an ascent was hard fought, it doesn’t mean that the descent will be just as gradual.
Easier said than done knowing that, just because people have hailed you as a future world champion, until your name is on the trophy and the champagne is for you and you alone, those sentiments are worthless.
Just look at his manager, Webber. He led the title race in 2010 but fell short in the closing couple of rounds. He never got another chance.
Perhaps Piastri can take solace in knowing that it was not just he who was left to rue mistakes.
Verstappen may look back on a rush of blood in Spain that cost him a 10-second penalty when he crashed into the side of George Russell’s Mercedes.
That 10-second penalty essentially cost him 11 points. He finished the race 10th while he was fighting for fourth with Russell at the time of his mistake.
But Verstappen already has four world titles. He doesn’t have to worry about his legacy being unfulfilled.
But there are plenty of minor moments that shape a season — it’s what makes them so compelling.
And every mistake or error is a learning moment for Piastri.
Sometimes coming close makes you stronger for a tilt at the top next time around.
Sometimes it’s a scar that never heals.