{"id":203723,"date":"2025-10-10T19:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/203723\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T19:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:57:07","slug":"why-oscar-piastri-is-second-best-f1-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/203723\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Oscar Piastri is second-best F1 driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has identified McLaren\u2019s Oscar Piastri as being the best driver on the grid in 2025, second only to Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s thanks to Piastri\u2019s ability to learn from his mistakes and to avoid trying to foist the blame on someone else, Ecclestone explains.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri: Second in F1 only to Max Verstappen<\/p>\n

Since he first took the lead of the F1 2025 drivers\u2019 championship battle after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri<\/a> has not relinquished his grip on it.<\/p>\n

Currently sitting with 336 points after the conclusion of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Australian driver remains 22 points ahead of teammate Lando Norris and 63 points ahead of Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen, who has mounted a late-season charge following the introduction of an upgraded floor at the Italian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

While Piastri has lately faced some of the first major stumbles of his career \u2014 such as crashing in both qualifying and on the first lap of the race in Azerbaijan \u2014 he remains the favorite for the championship in the eyes of many.<\/p>\n

Including none other than Bernie Ecclestone, the 94-year-old business magnate responsible for transforming Formula 1 into the multi-billion dollar business that it is today.<\/p>\n

More analysis from PlanetF1.com:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 uncovered: Hidden details revealed under the lights in Singapore<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Russell to stay? Predicting the next move for every out-of-contract F1 driver<\/a><\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview with sport.de, Ecclestone expressed his confidence in Piastri\u2019s ability to secure the F1 2025 championship thanks to his ability to own up to his mistakes and learn from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets the job done,\u201d Ecclestone said of the Australian driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he makes mistakes, he knows he\u2019s made them and doesn\u2019t blame others or come up with excuses. He makes sure he doesn\u2019t repeat them. He doesn\u2019t make them twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best driver after Max Verstappen.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a sentiment that Ecclestone has been repeating for some time. Speaking to the Daily Mail in September of 2023, Ecclestone said of Piastri, \u201cIf I were a team owner, I think I\u2019d get hold of the Australian kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that same interview, Ecclestone also admitted that \u201cMax is the best driver ever. No doubts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to say Alain Prost. Now I would say Max. He\u2019s the greatest. He is the brightest with regard to getting the best out of the car. He doesn\u2019t muck around.\u201d<\/p>\n

That puts Piastri in some truly rarified company.<\/p>\n

In his recent sport.de interview, Ecclestone noted that the duo at McLaren is \u201clucky\u201d because they\u2019re \u201cin the right team at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have certainly been some drivers who were better than today\u2019s drivers, but who never had the chance to show their strengths to anyone,\u201d the former F1 boss said.<\/p>\n

\u201cZak Brown is doing a very good job. I said recently, because I\u2019ve known him for a long time: \u2018I don\u2019t think you\u2019re very talented, but one of your talents is that you choose the right people to work for you.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Alex Palou reveals \u2018upset and angry\u2019 reaction to Piastri news in ongoing McLaren lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has identified McLaren\u2019s Oscar Piastri as being the best driver on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,2061,817,813,816,818,913,44,2333,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-203723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bernie-ecclestone","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-mclaren","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-oscar-piastri","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}