OSCAR PIASTRI BREAKS SILENCE ON "STRESSFUL" BATTLE WITH VERSTAPPEN AND NORRIS
Oscar Piastri reflects on leading the 2025 F1 title race for 15 rounds and reveals the "streamlined" McLaren rules for 2026.
Oscar Piastri didn’t leave Abu Dhabi as a Formula 1 world champion, but he’s still looking at 2025 with a sense of optimism.
For most of the season, Piastri led the drivers’ championship. He looked set for glory until a string of mistakes tripped him up—right when Lando Norris hit his stride. It stung, sure, but let’s not forget: this was only Piastri’s third season in F1. He’s already got nine Grand Prix wins, and he’s still learning compared to some of the veterans.
Everyone expects Piastri to snag a title at some point in his career. 2025 just wasn’t his year. Even so, he managed to soak up the experience and actually enjoy the fight.
He talked about it on The Fast and The Curious podcast. They asked if he enjoyed the 2025 season, even with all the pressure from battling Norris and Verstappen for the title.
“Yeah, I did,” he said. “Winning is usually more fun than losing, obviously, but the whole experience was pretty great.”
Piastri spent 15 weekends at the top of the standings during that marathon 24-race season. He didn’t get the championship, but he still found moments to savour.
There was pressure, of course. “Fighting for a championship comes with a lot of stress,” he said. “But I remember walking into the press conference in Abu Dhabi—just seeing the line of photographers and journalists waiting to get in. That was a cool moment. It felt like I was part of F1 history. There were definitely times I could enjoy it, even right as it was happening. That mattered a lot to me.”
As for McLaren, Piastri hasn’t been shy about what he thinks needs to change. Some people think that the way the team managed their two drivers left him a bit uncertain in the garage, which ultimately cost him.
He told F1.com that he’s already talked with Zak Brown and Andrea Stella over the winter break about what to fix.
“As soon as the season ended, we all knew there were things we could do better,” he said. “Yeah, we had a great year, but we didn’t nail everything. It was important for all of us to be clear about what we want to change going forward. We’ve had some good talks about how to make that happen and what it’ll actually look like.”
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA REUNITED WITH 2004 BRAZILIAN GP WINNING WILLIAMS FW26
Juan Pablo Montoya reveals the $200,000 cost to restore his Williams FW26 as F1 car ownership trends among legends like Ocon and Button.
Juan Pablo Montoya spent most of his Formula 1 career racing for Williams. They pulled him straight out of American racing and signed him for the 2001 season.
It worked out pretty well. Montoya won four races in 68 starts, even though Michael Schumacher and Ferrari were dominating back then. He still managed to finish in the top three of the championship in both 2002 and 2003.
Montoya’s name sits high in Williams’ record books. He’s in their top five for podiums (23) and pole positions (11).
He left Williams at the end of 2004 and joined McLaren for two seasons. After that, he headed back to the U.S. to race in NASCAR.
Now, Montoya faces a pretty hefty bill if he wants to relive his Williams days. On his AS Colombia podcast, he said he bought the Williams FW26—the car he drove to victory in the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, his last race for the team.
But owning the car and actually driving it are two different things. The car ran a BMW engine back in the day, but right now, it’s just an empty shell—no engine at all.
Montoya’s 50 now, but he was still racing as recently as 2023. He’s got plans to get the car running and take it out for a few laps soon.
He’s not sugarcoating it—getting the car back on track will cost him close to $200,000 (£147,000) if he wants to do serious mileage.
“The car is missing an engine,” Montoya said. “We were supposed to put one in this year, but we haven’t even done a single lap.
“To be honest, I’ve got so many other things going on. The idea is to take it for a few laps.
“If you want, you can chip in and give it a try yourself! If you want to do 40 laps in that car, it’ll end up costing about $150,000 to $200,000 in total.
“One day on track will run you $80,000 to $100,000, and all the parts and extras are another $100,000.”
Montoya’s not the only F1 driver who owns a piece of his old racing history.
In 2024, Esteban Ocon got his hands on the Alpine car he took to victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix—still his only F1 win. Ocon, who’s now moved to Haas, actually had a contract clause that let him keep the car.
Fernando Alonso’s championship-winning Renaults from 2005 and 2006 are on display in his museum in Spain.
Jenson Button also owned his 2009 Brawn—the car that won him the title—but he sold it at auction last year for a whopping £2.8 million.
LANDO NORRIS REVEALS DAVID BECKHAM MESSAGE FOLLOWING 2025 F1 TITLE WIN
F1 Champion Lando Norris reveals the famous names in his DMs, including David Beckham, as he prepares for the 2026 season.
Lando Norris shared that David Beckham slid into his DMs after he clinched the 2025 Formula 1 drivers’ title, opening up a little about how much that support means to him.
Since his first championship win, Norris has been sifting through a flood of messages—though he’s also been trying to squeeze in some downtime during the winter break before diving back into 2026 prep.
“Honestly, I haven’t even read half of them,” Norris said on The Fast And The Curious podcast when someone asked who’d reached out after his victory. “There are so many I haven't looked at. I need to, but it takes ages. I’ve probably replied to about half. So, I’ve still got four days just to try and get through everything—Instagram, WhatsApp, wherever. It’s a lot. And honestly, there are some amazing people in there.”
He talked about hearing from all sorts of folks, too. “There are people from all kinds of sports. Some are absolute legends, some are people I grew up watching, some are younger, and some are older.”
“Getting that kind of support, just the congratulations and the respect, is something I really admire. It’s just a beautiful thing. But I’m sorry to anyone I haven’t replied to yet.”
Then, when someone brought up Beckham, Norris grinned. “We chat now and then about different stuff. Yeah, he messaged me. David’s always great. He pops into the garage sometimes—Bahrain, Qatar, and a few other places. He’s a cool guy. It’s always nice seeing his name pop up.”
Norris spent late January doing private testing in Barcelona, from the 26th to the 30th. After that, he headed to Bahrain for McLaren’s season launch on February 9th. More testing kicks off at the same track from February 11th to 13th and then again from the 18th to the 20th.