Heading into his fourth season in Formula 1, Oscar Piastri said he is approaching the ceiling of how he can extract performance from a race weekend.<\/p>\n
Ultimately falling short in what was his first world championship battle last season, the Australian heads home to Melbourne this time around feeling more complete as he and the rest of the grid starts from scratch at Albert Park this weekend.<\/p>\n
Oscar Piastri nearing personal performance ceiling in fourth F1 season<\/p>\n
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust.<\/p>\n Piastri won seven races in a close title fight with his teammate, Lando Norris, with Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen surging from more than 100 points off the pace to force a final-race decider between the three, which ultimately went in Norris\u2019 favour.<\/p>\n This time around, McLaren is not expecting the all-new MCL40 to be at the head of the field at the Australian Grand Prix, with the Woking-based team and Red Bull expected to be just behind an early competitive front two of Mercedes and Ferrari, based on understanding after testing.<\/p>\n As for how he\u2019s approaching the regulation reset, the Melburnian is looking to put the lessons of his first three seasons in Formula 1 into practice for what is arguably the biggest single change in the sport\u2019s history, with both chassis and power unit rules changing at the same time.<\/p>\n While adapting to a radically different driving experience, Piastri believes his performances in 2025 show he is getting closer to showing his full potential in Formula 1.<\/p>\n \u201cI think last year, or certainly end of 2024, I felt like I\u2019d kind of been able to get on top of all the different areas I needed to, just not really all at the same time or on the same weekend,\u201d Piastri explained to media including PlanetF1.com in Melbourne.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat probably the biggest positive of 2025 for me was that I was able to put all of those kind of strengths and learning together so much more often.<\/p>\n Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris to race for McLaren in F1 2026 season<\/p>\n F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the F1 2026 grid?<\/a><\/p>\n F1 2026 driver salaries: Who are the highest-paid drivers on the grid?<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think some of the learnings, just from a driving style point of view, there are still some things that suited me better than others, and that\u2019s just kind of natural in the way you drive. Everyone\u2019s going to have their things that they find easier to adapt to and things that they find harder to adapt to, but I think with this year\u2019s cars, they\u2019re so different.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking about adapting to things that we\u2019ve never even considered as a race car driver before.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a very new process, and I think, for me, what was very positive out of last year was that the process of attacking something that was either new or I needed to get on top of worked well \u2013 and I think you can apply that to kind of anything.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I think we\u2019re always going to be learning, no matter if you\u2019ve had three years in the sport like me, or 15 or 20 like Lewis [Hamilton] and Fernando [Alonso.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think, definitely the kind of \u2018ceiling\u2019, let\u2019s say, is I\u2019m getting closer to that ceiling, and I certainly felt like that in 2025, and I think the results and a lot of the race weekends kind of show that.\u201d<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our\u00a0broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a>\u00a0to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the\u00a0PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n