F1 title blow? Oscar Piastri sidelined in McLaren switch at Abu Dhabi GP

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Bahrain, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

F1 title blow? Piastri sidelined in McLaren switch at Abu Dhabi GP

Piastri all but lost the title fight on Sunday

Chris Deeley

Monday 1 December 2025 18:51

Oscar Piastri won't get a full race weekend to round off the season in Abu Dhabi, thanks to some new F1 rules.

Every driver must give up their seat for two free practice sessions every season and, since the Aussie has only sat on the sidelines once in 2025, he will be forced to watch on in FP1 on Friday.

A disastrous strategy call in Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix robbed Piastri of what looked like a certain win at the end of a weekend he'd dominated, depriving him of the chance to close the championship gap to team-mate Lando Norris to just nine points.

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That would have meant that a win in Abu Dhabi would have been enough to secure the title if Norris finished anywhere below second – but now he needs to win in the Gulf state and have his team-mate finish sixth or worse, something he has only done three times in 23 races this year.

Piastri made to wait after Qatar disaster

Piastri might have wanted to jump straight back into his car this coming weekend to wash the memories of Qatar from his mind, but instead he'll have to watch a rookie driver – most likely Pato O'Ward – drive his car out around the track, presumably praying for 60 full minutes that he doesn't see an orange car smash into a tyre barrier on the monitors.

Should Norris then top the first session of the Abu Dhabi GP weekend, Piastri could be put at a psychological disadvantage as he attempts to catch up in the following two practice sessions.

For those who missed Sunday's race, McLaren chose not to pit when the safety car came out on Lap 7 of the 57-lap race, the earliest possible moment for a two-stop strategy given the mandatory maximum of 25 laps per set of tyres imposed for the race.

The team's engineers and strategists had expected a number of other drivers to stay out with them, giving them a strong buffer of traffic back to Max Verstappen, only to see the whole field file into the pits behind them, essentially giving the Dutchman a free pit stop in terms of track position.

After the race, Piastri was in a sombre mood, calling the race: “Pretty gut-wrenching, to be honest. It felt like I drove probably the best weekend I’ve had this year, if not in F1, so to not have the result is painful.

“Clearly we didn’t get it right tonight. I drove the best race that I could as fast as I could and there was nothing left out there, so I tried my best. It wasn’t to be tonight unfortunately.

“I think in hindsight it’s pretty obvious what we would’ve done. I’m sure we’ll discuss it as a team.”