Winning three out of the first five Grands Prix of the 2025 season, Oscar Piastri has laid down a marker and established himself as one of the top contenders for this year’s championship. What has been most impressive about him, other than his outstanding racecraft, is his calm demeanor.
This is not a common trait many drivers have when they are fighting for the title, as they are usually under immense pressure. One just needs to look at McLaren’s other side of the garage to understand the kind of pressure drivers usually are under when they are deemed the favorites to win the title.
With McLaren having the quickest package this season, many fans and experts labeled Lando Norris the favorite to win this 2025 drivers’ championship because of his experience, as he is currently in his seventh season in F1. However, in the process, they overlooked Piastri, who may be just in his third year in the sport, but is showcasing much better composure than Norris.
It is the Australian’s consistency since his rookie F1 season in 2023 that has helped him equal an impressive statistic Lewis Hamilton achieved during his peak when he was driving at Mercedes. Between the 2016 Japanese GP and the 2018 French GP, the Briton finished 33 consecutive races.
Piastri has now equaled that feat by finishing every race between the 2023 Mexico City GP and the most recently held Saudi Arabian GP. The two are tied in fourth place along with German former F1 driver Nick Heidfeld, who had a streak of finishes from the 2007 Chinese GP to the 2009 Italian GP.
Since Piastri’s impressive streak is still active, he will hope to not just finish more races this season but also finish in the points in as many races as he can, especially considering he will want to fight for his maiden title. If the 24-year-old is able to finish the next 16 races this season, he will break Hamilton‘s all-time record of most consecutive finishes (48).
The seven-time champion maintained this record streak between the 2018 British GP and the 2020 Bahrain GP. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen is also on the list in second with 43 consecutive finishes, but his streak ended last year in Jeddah, following which he had a retirement in Australia.
And as much as Piastri deserves praise for this consistency, so does McLaren. It goes without saying that for a driver to finish as many races as they can, they need a reliable car.
Just noticed that McLaren is the only team that has no retirements this season (Norris didn’t finish the Austrian GP – but he had completed 90% of the race so officially he didn’t “retire” and got the 20th place)
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And McLaren certainly seems to have one of the most reliable cars on the grid, as they created an F1 record last year, by being the only team to finish every race without a single mechanical retirement. Although Norris did not finish last year’s Austrian GP due to his infamous collision with Verstappen, he did not register a DNF as he finished most of the race and so was classified last.
