Outside Line: Fair dinkum Oscar Piastri

After a masterclass in Saudi Arabia, Piastri 'owned' the weekend — including Max Verstappen. It has been thrilling to watch him and McLaren teammate Lando Norris push each other to new heights. Since pairing up, they’ve driven each other to a level where only the strongest survive.

Right now, Piastri has the upper hand. He has beaten Norris outright in the last two races with slick, composed, and utterly controlled performances. The new threat to Verstappen has arrived

What makes Piastri’s emergence even more remarkable is that he has come almost out of nowhere to challenge Verstappen’s reign. Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Norris have all threatened, but none have delivered. Piastri did it in Jeddah.

When Verstappen cut the track, Piastri stayed calm. When Max unleashed his anger and speed, Oscar stayed ahead. Not just ahead — uncatchable.

Considering his youth and relative inexperience, Piastri’s rise is even more stunning. Imagine what he could be after 140 F1 races like Norris, to his teammate's 51 starts. Yet it’s Piastri who is making the difference.

Piastri carries the traits that define the greats of this century: Schumacher, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Verstappen. Yet trying to compare him to anyone feels wrong. In the modern era, nobody has shown such a mix of icy calm and ruthless execution.

Victories or mistakes, Piastri reacts the same — steady, emotionless, focused. He’s colder than Kimi Räikkönen, but without Kimi’s detached, disinterested air. Piastri is fully engaged, fully alive, and yet utterly composed.

And that could be where he beats Verstappen. Max, for all his brilliance, can still be petulant when things go wrong. We saw it in Jeddah after the penalty he deserved, but could not accept. Piastri? He just shrugs and moves on.

If he truly has the raw talent Verstappen does — and the signs are there — the world is about to see a lot more of Oscar Piastri.

All pre-season, the noise around McLaren was Norris. The British media hyped him. McLaren’s focus leaned his way. In Bahrain, when Piastri called for a swap, it was clear the team preferred to let Norris have the clean air.

But something changed. Maybe a word from Mark Webber. Maybe just the Aussie youngster realising the truth: if he wanted the upper hand, he had to crush it out on track. And for now he has. The score is 3-2 to Piastri; 2-0 in the last two races.

The 10-point gap to Norris is now real. And if Piastri keeps up his form, Zak Brown and Andrea Stella will have no choice but to back the young Australian for the title.

Piastri for Champion? At the start of the year, I was certain Verstappen would cruise to a fifth straight title. Now? If you asked me today amid the chaos of Red Bull, I’d say I am gravitating towards Oscar doing the business.

And, if the preseason favourite, Norris, has anything to say about it, he must do his talking now in Miami, where he won last year, and a very good place to contain his teammate who gets better and better every GP weekend.

In closing, another Herbert observation worth noting on the McLaren driver pairing: "There's always a chance that Norris or Piastri leaves McLaren because of the rivalry, but would they risk a good pairing?

"Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull because of Verstappen's emergence and gave it a shot at Renault. There will be a time at McLaren when they choose to favour one of the drivers, it's impossible to keep it equal. There will be more trust placed in the one driver outperforming the other, hopefully it’s a lesson learnt from last season.

"Piastri seems to be controlling his own destiny at the moment and has the edge. Could Norris take the same path as Ricciardo? Possibly… but why would he do that? He’s fast enough to beat Oscar for this Championship, it will be hard work for them both," reckons Herbert.