Oscar Piastri 'mental element' theory raised after shock F1 title failure

Former Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski believes there was a "mental element" behind Oscar Piastri’s dramatic downfall in the 2025 F1 drivers’ title fight.

Piastri had become the clear favourite to win the championship after Lando Norris retired in Zandvoort, a race the Australian won to extend his lead to 34 points.

However, Piastri went on a horrific run of form, crashing in both qualifying and the race in Azerbaijan — a grand prix which marked the start of a six-race run without a podium.

It ultimately cost him the title, with the 24-year-old slipping to third and finishing 13 points behind his McLaren team-mate.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella put Piastri’s difficulties in the closing rounds down to low-grip circuits, which did not suit his driving style.

While Budkowski does not disagree with Stella, he believes there was also a mental factor in how dramatically Piastri’s title challenge unravelled.

Asked where Piastri's 2025 season went wrong, Budkowski said on a recent episode of the RacingNews365 podcast: "It’s difficult to say. I think it’s a combination of factors — the technical reasons, the grip, and the fact that his driving style is more or less suited to certain circuits, track conditions, and the way the car behaves.

"Because at the end of the day, it’s always a mix between the driver’s style and how you extract performance from the car. 

"I also think there were some mental aspects involved, which is interesting, because in the first part of the season we were marvelling at such a young driver being so mentally strong, showing no emotions, and so on.

"I don’t want to say it was mental issues, because I don’t know that for a fact, but it feels like there was a mental element there — especially in Baku, with a spectacular mistake that wasn’t typical, a poor qualifying session, and the mistake during the race. That certainly didn’t help his confidence."