Oscar Piastri became the first repeat winner (and, er, fourth pole-to-flag victor in a row in what was billed as the closest, most unpredictable F1 season in yonks), by dominating the Bahrain Grand Prix, closing to within three points of Lando Norris.
Ergo, the Aussie is now the early favorite for the 2025 title. Yup, this is the ridiculously early conclusion we’ve reached based on four whole races of evidence.
Oscar had a wretched start to the year after spinning out of his home grand prix in Melbourne—somehow reversing off the soggy grass to salvage ninth—but he’s been in red hot form since, comfortably winning in China and again in Sakhir, having bagged a podium in between in Japan the other week.
Meanwhile Lando Norris—who more often than not enjoyed a healthy gap over Piastri in their first two years as teammates—has admitted that he isn’t quite clicking with the rocket ship the Woking HQ has developed over the winter.
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Lando could only manage sixth in qualifying this weekend when he should’ve been in the hunt for pole, and his recovery drive was a messy one, earning a penalty for being outside his grid box at the start, and then being outfoxed by the Mercedes of George Russell in the final two laps of the race. Ouch.
McLaren reckons it’s only a matter of time before the British driver gets on top of his issues, but until he does… it’s his younger rival who looks the more solid bet right now, isn’t it?
It’s not like there’s much of a challenge coming from behind. Well, not yet anyway. Russell has been Mr. Consistent in a Mercedes lacking outright pace, and while Andrea Kimi Antonelli has shown flashes of brilliance, he’s already 32 points down on his more experienced teammate.
Meanwhile, Red Bull has given Max Verstappen a car that either won’t turn or brake properly or possibly both at the same time. You could argue the team’s biggest win of the season so far isn’t Japan, but finding a second driver actually capable of finishing in the top 10. Shoutout to Yuki Tsunoda’s groundbreaking P8.
And Ferrari? The Scuderia is doing what it does best, contriving to achieve less than the sum of its parts with what must be the most expensive driver line-up in the history of motorsport.
Nope, it looks like a straight, papaya-only fight, at least until Adrian Newey unlocks about two seconds of lap time off the Aston.
Who are you backing based on what you’ve seen so far?
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
