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Oscar Piastri has honestly addressed the possibility of helping Lando Norris win the 2025 F1 drivers' championship at the Abu Dhabi GP. The Australian driver will be in a tough spot in the race on Sunday (6 December) if McLaren is forced to implement team orders to prevent Max Verstappen from snatching the championship from under their nose.
Verstappen will start the race from pole after a brilliant performance in qualifying, with Norris alongside him on the front row, and Piastri in P3. Heading into the race, the points situation is as follows: championship leader Norris is 12 points ahead of Verstappen, who is four points ahead of third-placed Piastri.
For Oscar Piastri, overcoming a 16-point deficit in one race is an uphill battle. Even if he wins the Abu Dhabi GP, he needs Norris to finish in P6 or lower to win the championship. So, Piastri winning the championship seems far-fetched because he needs misfortune to befall both his rivals.
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If no freak incidents derail the race, the Aussie might have to forget about his shot at winning the championship and help his teammate rather than have Max Verstappen win the title. When Piastri was asked about this potential predicament after qualifying, he said (via Soymotor's X):
"First, I'll go for the championship. The championship, even if I win the race, is not in my hands, but I will try to be in the right place at the right time."
For both Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, they need Lando Norris to have bad luck for a shot at winning the championship.
Oscar Piastri admits he 'didn't have an answer' to Max Verstappen's pace in Abu Dhabi GP qualifying
Oscar Piastri didn't have the easiest of starts to the Abu Dhabi GP weekend. He missed FP1, with McLaren replacing him with reserve driver Pato O'Ward to fulfill the quota of running junior drivers in place of each driver twice in a season. In FP2, he found himself in P11, while Lando Norris topped the timesheets. Though Piastri seemed to close the gap in FP3, he wasn't entirely confident with the machinery under him.
However, in qualifying, he was quick from the word go. In Q1, he was over half a second quicker than his McLaren teammate. However, the gap reduced to around two-tenths in Q2, and Norris eventually bested him in Q3. But it was Max Verstappen's pole lap, over two-tenths quicker than the McLarens, that stole the limelight.
Post-qualifying, Piastri spoke about his runs at the Yas Marina circuit and the gulf in performance to Verstappen.
"I'm pretty happy," the McLaren driver said (via F1TV). "Felt like Q1, that was the first lap that was actually good this weekend, which was nice to have it at the right time. Then, I think the laps in Q3 were pretty good as well."
"The tiny little margins you always have in qualifying laps were probably there, but I didn't have an answer for Max's pace today. Ultimately, pretty happy. Would've loved a bit more, but we didn't have it," he added.
McLaren will have a lot of strategic options heading into the Abu Dhabi GP on Sunday, all aimed at preventing Max Verstappen from winning a fifth consecutive F1 drivers' championship. Among the possible situations, it seems difficult to see in which circumstance Oscar Piastri becomes the favorite for the crown.
