{"id":315528,"date":"2025-11-29T02:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315528\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T02:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:10:12","slug":"f1-news-piastris-ex-coach-proud-as-f1-title-battle-nears-its-climax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315528\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Piastri\u2019s ex-coach \u2018proud\u2019 as F1 title battle nears its climax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Piastri\u2019s
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOscar Piastri with Kim Keedle during their time together at McLaren. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n

Keedle, who worked with Piastri through his junior triumphs and into Formula 1 before stepping away from the sport last year, told Speedcafe that observing the McLaren driver\u2019s breakout championship bid from the outside has been both satisfying and emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, look, just filled with pride to be honest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had such a good season. As we know, he\u2019s such a good driver and McLaren has been very competitive this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keedle played a key role in Piastri\u2019s rise, joining him during his Renault Academy years after working with Romain Grosjean at Haas, supporting him through his 2021 Formula 2 title and into his first two F1 seasons with McLaren.<\/p>\n

Now back home in Melbourne and no longer part of the McLaren operation, Keedle said he has enjoyed watching Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris battle freely at the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving myself from that internal situation having worked with Oscar previously, it\u2019s just so exciting to see two top drivers go head to head and be given space from the team to be able to race each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think as a fan, it\u2019s been really exciting. You know, obviously, we\u2019re hoping that there\u2019s a successful result, but at the end of the day, Oscar can walk away proud with whatever he achieves this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ll always be very envious and proud of what he achieves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although no longer responsible for Piastri\u2019s race-to-race preparation, Keedle said the pair have kept up their easy-going friendship \u2014 one built over years of travel, training blocks and long F1 seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah bromance. Yeah,\u201d he laughed when asked how their communication works now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so busy. Formula 1 drivers are so busy, especially when you\u2019re fighting at the top end of a championship and especially when you\u2019re in a big team like McLaren.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he needs to have his space and focus on his work.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they still chat often, though rarely about racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk regularly, but we talk about random things like Australia beating the English [in cricket],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about all sorts of sports and cars and normal things that normal people talk about. Not just racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

With two rounds left in the 2025 championship, Keedle believes Piastri remains capable of overturning the deficit in the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course. Absolutely he can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that there\u2019s still a few twists and tails in what has been a pretty exciting season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Australia loves an underdog story and he\u2019s so talented that, yeah, of course he can.\u201d<\/p>\n

2025 F1 Qatar Grand Prix \u2013 Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri with Kim Keedle during their time together at McLaren. Image: XPB Images Keedle, who worked with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,2333,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-315528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-oscar-piastri","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315528","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=315528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}