Oscar Piastri believes he can use some lessons from Max Verstappen's late 2025 charge in the 2026 title rematch against Lando Norris.
Following the Dutch GP last August, Piastri held a 34-point lead over Norris, who retired with an oil leak, and had a 104-point cushion over Verstappen.
However, following the team orders decision in Italy to order Piastri to cede position back to Norris following a slow pit-stop for the Briton, the Australian admitted this was on his mind during a horror weekend in Azerbaijan.
Piastri crashed in qualifying, before jumping the start and falling to the rear, before crashing before the end of Sector 1 to eliminate himself, with the rot then setting in.
Across the six races between Azerbaijan and Las Vegas, Piastri posted results of DNF (Azerbaijan), fourth (in Singapore after another team orders row), and a trio of fifth places in the United States, Mexico City and Sao Paulo, before a run to fourth in Las Vegas was expunged with his disqualification for too much plank wear.
He also crashed out of the Austin and Interlagos Sprints, just as Norris and Verstappen peaked to overhaul him.
Piastri lost the lead of the championship in Mexico in round 20 after leading since winning in round five in Saudi Arabia, with a late rally in Qatar and Abu Dhabi was not enough to pass Norris and Verstappen, who finished 13 and 11 points clear of Piastri, respectively.
Looking ahead to his fourth season in grand prix racing in 2026, Piastri believes that there are lessons he can take from his own failures, but also Verstappen's stunning comeback, in which he wiped out the 104-point deficit and pulled 11 clear for a 115-point swing in nine races.
"I think they're great questions to ask Lando," Piastri began when asked by media, including RacingNews365, what he could learn from Norris's fightback, and if he'd be more confident as the reigning world champion in 2026.
"Definitely the second half of his season was strong, and he was a deserving champion. The first part of the year probably wasn't as straightforward as he wanted, but it is better to let him answer.
"For me, it was more than there were a lot of things which happened in my own season, in the second half that you wouldn't wish for from a lot of different angles, and that is the main lesson for me.
"I've got plenty of lessons I can take from my own campaign, but it is important to keep an eye on others as well, but there was plenty [to learn] myself.
"Even in the second half of the season, with Max and Red Bull coming back from such a big deficit, there are definitely some lessons to learn from that as well.
"But I think there was more than enough to learn from my own season and try to improve for this year."
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