{"id":376265,"date":"2025-12-28T15:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T15:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/376265\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T15:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T15:15:11","slug":"analyst-highlights-key-step-that-created-a-new-formula-1-title-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/376265\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyst highlights key step that created a new Formula 1 title contender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite eventually missing out on the drivers&#8217; title, former driver and analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/jolyon-palmer\" title=\"Jolyon Palmer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jolyon Palmer<\/a> highlighted a major step that elevated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/oscar-piastri\" title=\"Oscar Piastri\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Piastri<\/a> into title contention.&#8221;A big turnaround from 2024 when he was blown away by Norris over one lap.&#8221;- Jolyon Palmer<\/p>\n<p>Piastri led the drivers&#8217; championship for much of the 2025 season, but after a difficult run following the Italian Grand Prix, he finished third in the standings behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n<p>While Palmer chose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/max-verstappen-was-the-best-in-2025-no-doubt-about-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Verstappen as the best driver of the 2025 season<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1\" title=\"F1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">F1<\/a>.com, he opted for Piastri as the most improved driver.<\/p>\n<p>The Briton wrote: &#8220;What a season for Oscar \u2013 another driver who came up tantalisingly short but at least managed to regroup after a tricky run through the Americas to shape up for a genuine title tilt.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Australian driver won seven Grands Prix during the &#8217;25 campaign, but Palmer also underlined that he could have reached as many as 10.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251207-0830-6935a3a27148c.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"mclaren-oscar-piastri-jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Piastri finished 13 points behind Norris in the standings &#8211; Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n<p>He continued by highlighting what made Piastri a force to be reckoned with in terms of the title battle. &#8220;His pace and consistency on Saturdays was critical \u2013 and a big turnaround from 2024 when he was blown away by Norris over one lap.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You could make a case for Oscar being a worthy world champion this year and from where he was in 2024, that\u2019s an amazing coming of age. It didn\u2019t happen, but he will certainly start next year with more eyes on him if he has a car to compete again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, Palmer is confident: &#8220;I think he\u2019s shown he\u2019s got what it takes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest episode of GPblog&#8217;s F1 Paddock Update here!<\/p>\n<p>Want to stay up-to-date with what happens in the F1 paddock? Then GPblog&#8217;s F1 Paddock Update video is the perfect way to do it. Subscribe to GPblog&#8217;s YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget to follow us on Spotify as well!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite eventually missing out on the drivers&#8217; title, former driver and analyst Jolyon Palmer highlighted a major step&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,35119,813,816,17134,913,2333,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-376265","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-f1","11":"tag-f1-news","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-jolyon-palmer","15":"tag-mclaren","16":"tag-oscar-piastri","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376265","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=376265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}