{"id":711711,"date":"2026-06-03T03:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711711\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T03:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:14:11","slug":"f1-news-2026-oscar-piastri-couldnt-handle-pressure-of-title-challenge-kimi-raikkonen-comments-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/711711\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news 2026 | Oscar Piastri \u2018couldn\u2019t handle pressure\u2019 of title challenge, Kimi Raikkonen comments, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri<\/a> lost last year\u2019s F1<\/a> title because he \u201ccouldn\u2019t handle the pressure\u201d, according to 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a rare interview with Italian media, \u2018The Iceman\u2019 was talking about Mercedes<\/a> gun Kimi Antonelli<\/a>\u2019s meteoric rise to the top of the sport and his dominant start to the season when Piastri copped a stray whack.<\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri ‘couldn’t handle the pressure’ of leading the championship, according to Kimi Raikkonen.\u00a0NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Victory in the Dutch Grand Prix<\/a> last August had Piastri 34 points clear of eventual champion Lando Norris. <\/p>\n

His third place finish at Monza<\/a> the following week was his last podium for six races. He had nightmare weekends at Azerbaijan<\/a> and the USA<\/a>, and crashed out of the Brazilian<\/a> sprint race while running well in the points.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Quotidiano Nazionale, the Finn said Antonelli would not suffer the same fate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAntonelli won\u2019t lose focus – he\u2019s showing maturity,\u201d Raikkonen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll have to avoid imitating Piastri in 2025. At one point, (he) seemed to have the title in his pocket, but he couldn\u2019t handle the pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Italian won\u2019t fall into the same trap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kim<\/p>\n

Kimi Raikkonen in his final year with Ferrari in 2018.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Five race meetings into the 2026 season, Antonelli leads the standings by a whopping 43 points over teammate George Russell<\/a>. It\u2019s the biggest championship lead any driver has held since the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old in Canada became the first driver in history to notch his first four grands prix victories on the trot<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, in Formula 1, you don\u2019t win four consecutive grands prix unless you have special talent,\u201d Raikkonen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAntonelli\u2019s numbers are a feat. Having the right car is crucial, but it\u2019s always been that way, throughout history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raikkonen said he was \u201camused\u201d the young Italian shares his name. After winning his maiden grand prix in Shanghai<\/a>, veteran podium announcer Bob Constanduros accidentally announced \u2018Kimi Raikkonen\u2019 instead of \u2018Kimi Antonelli\u2019.<\/p>\n

But despite the Italian\u2019s prodigious talent, Raikkonen had no hesitation when he declared Max Verstappen<\/a> the benchmark driver on the grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax is a phenomenon – he won his first race in Spain right in front of me 10 years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I realised a star was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

The F1 season continues this weekend with the series\u2019 crown jewel Monaco Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri lost last year\u2019s F1 title because he \u201ccouldn\u2019t handle the pressure\u201d, according to 2007 world champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-711711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711711","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=711711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}