Oscar Piastri took significant motivation from his battle for victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, and now believes that Mercedes can be beaten this year.

Mercedes has been the dominant force in the early stages of the 2026 season, but after a pair of one-two finishes in Australia and China, Piastri ended this streak by following Kimi Antonelli home at Suzuka.

Piastri’s belief is fuelled by the fact that he was never passed on-track by the eventual race winner, with Antonelli profiting through a fortuitously timed safety car intervention, gifting him a cheap pit stop and allowing him to leapfrog the McLaren driver.

Asked if he left Japan thinking Mercedes are beatable, Piastri replied: “Yes. I think we knew from last year, or we know from last year, that even when you have the best car you still need to operate it at an incredibly high level. And I think, on our side, we did a really good job of that.

“But I think it’s interesting to see when someone else has the fastest car that it’s not that straightforward. And yeah, I think the fact that I could keep George behind for so long was really encouraging.

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“But we’re under no illusion. We did everything right this weekend and we still got beaten by 15 seconds, so we’ve got a pretty big gap to fill. I’m confident that we can get there, but yes, we’ve still got some work to do.”

Mercedes has so far lost positions at the start of each grand prix, with Japan seeing Piastri joining the Ferrari drivers in being able to get a jump on both Russell and Antonelli – the latter dropping from first to sixth by the exit of Turn 2.

While Russell was able to recover to second place, he was hampered similarly to Piastri by the safety car timing, dropping him behind Charles Leclerc, whom he was unable to pass as the Ferrari driver tactically used his battery deployment.

Playing out a scenario where the safety car had not been deployed, Piastri mused: “I would have loved to have seen how it would have panned out.

“I think I need to look back and see whether Kimi was quicker than George or similar pace. I think if he was the same pace as George then it would have been a pretty stressful afternoon because I probably would have had both of them right on my gearbox.

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“But yeah, I mean, I think once Kimi had clean air, clearly, he was a lot faster than me. So, I’m not sure we would have won the race, but I certainly would have loved to have found out.”

 

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