Oscar Piastri is hungry for Formula One title but won’t be rebellious
Closer than ever to a driver title, or never again as close? Oscar Piastri will soon find out his foreseeable future in Formula One.But he says there’s one thing he won’t do: rebel against McLaren team orders.The glitzy, globetrotting series is back and Melbourne offers a tantalising round of racing to start the season.Extensive changes to regulations have left each team grappling with new electric-boosted power units, and smaller, nimbler vehicles.For Piastri, the changes come at an unfortunate time, given the dominance of the McLaren in recent years.
He said on Thursday his team are no longer favourites, and he tipped Mercedes and Ferrari to lead early, with Red Bull not far behind, though his outfit will remain “in the mix” at the front, just “not right at the pointy end”,The Australian held a championship lead of 34 points midway through last season, a lead of more than the amount awarded for a race victory,But he finished third behind teammate Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in a campaign which Piastri admits was a learning experience,From the outside, McLaren appeared to be something less than a happy family, when decisions that advantaged Norris over Piastri coincided with the Australian’s loss of confidence,During the off-season, the approach to team orders have been reviewed and will be “streamlined” this season, which is likely to mean less interference from the garage.
But the Australian driver is adamant there is no schism between himself and chief executive Zak Brown.“We – just as a team, not necessarily Zak and I – obviously had some tough moments through last year, as any team has,” he said.“But I think our relationship’s only gotten stronger from that.”The team radio, Piastri accepts, is gospel.“We’re always going to race for the best interests of the team, we’ve always had freedom to race for our own individual results as well,” he said.
“Maybe on some occasions we’ve not always made the perfect decision, but I think for me the important part of that is there’s never been any bad intention with that.”His loyalty reflects his privilege in the seat, even if Piastri is not No 1 at McLaren.“I’m certainly not going to have a rebellious streak or anything like that,” he said.“A pretty quick-fire way to make sure you’re not going to win a championship is go against your own team, so I don’t think that’s a very wise move.”The F1 circus is brutal and taxing, but the grass is not always greener.
Daniel Ricciardo is still only 36, but has given up hope of returning to Formula One even if he was a world-leading talent in the recent past.Jack Doohan was jettisoned by Alpine after just seven races, though is now in Melbourne as a reserve driver for Haas.The grid’s honorary Australian, Valtteri Bottas, has made a return to F1 this year with new team Cadillac after spending 2025 as a reserve driver at Mercedes.The Finn spends the summer at a house in South Australia with his Australian partner, Tiffany Cromwell, who is an elite cyclist.Bottas – who is only two months younger than Ricciardo – joked on Thursday that he was so pleased to be back on the grid that he was even happy to be doing press engagements.
“I definitely have a better perspective of the sport and will appreciate it much more than I did two years ago,” he said.He returns in a different place.In addition to Cadillac’s entry, Audi has taken over the Kick/Stake/Sauber team to bring another engine manufacturer on to the grid.Regulations have brought extensive changes under the hood, and Bottas said the changes carry over to the cockpit.“The biggest difference and learning will be probably be while racing, managing the battery, where you use the deployment, how you strategise your move, whether it’s about overtaking or defending and not running out of battery at the wrong time.
”Lewis Hamilton described the new rules as “no joke” and urged Formula One to ensure they explain to fans the changes, which he said were the biggest in his 20 years in the sport.“We won’t know until we’ve [been] thrown in the deep end in the race to understand that when we overtake someone, how it’s going to affect us,” he said.Drivers will be expected to “lift and coast” in some parts of the track to recharge the battery, to ensure they can deploy the extra power in the parts of the circuit that make the biggest difference to either track position or lap time, depending on what is most important in the circumstances.“Turn five here, for example, if you take it flat, or if you lift, it has a massive, compound effect for the rest of the lap,” Hamilton said.“You can do a good lap, but you could be a second down because the deployment is off.
”
Jon Stewart on US attacks in Iran: ‘A war with no clear purpose, no end in sight’
Late-night hosts delved into the new US regime-change war in the Middle East, after Donald Trump directed the US military to bomb Iran in conjunction with Israel.Jon Stewart opened The Daily Show on Monday in a daze, after Iran state media confirmed that US and Israeli forces killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over the weekend. The host joked that, for the surprise occasion and chaos that followed, he needed to bring back “a 20-year recurring segment” titled “Mess O’Potamia”.“America, apparently, had to start an entire war to kill an 86-year-old man in ill health and not wait – I don’t know – three weeks to let saturated fat do its thing,” he joked.He then played a clip of Trump, wearing his USA hat, announcing the so-called “Operation Epic Fury” against Iran from his luxury golf course in Florida
‘My guitar was mangled – like my life!’ Goo Goo Dolls on how they made epic ballad Iris
‘I’m grateful to Taylor Swift, and others who have covered it, for introducing the song to a new generation. Three billion streams on Spotify is astonishing!’I was going through a divorce and living in a hotel in West Hollywood when my manager said Warner Brothers were seeking songs for the movie City of Angels. They already had U2, Peter Gabriel and Alanis Morissette, so I thought getting a track on there would draw attention to us. Warners showed me the film and it was like Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire. They wanted a song for the scene where the angel – played by Nicolas Cage – decides to become human to be with the woman he loves
My cultural awakening: Leonardo da Vinci made me rethink surgery – I’ve since mended more than 3,000 hearts
For one heart surgeon, seeing the Renaissance artist’s anatomical drawings gave him a natural understanding of the body that was often overlooked in modern medical scienceIf you’d asked my teenage self, growing up in a small village in Shropshire, what I wanted to do with my life, I would have talked about art and music long before I spoke of scalpel blades and operating theatres. As an 18-year-old, I intended to go to art school, until my mother sat me down and told me rather bluntly that being an artist wouldn’t earn me much money. As she spoke, a surgical documentary flickered across the screen of the black-and-white television in our living room. I told her, half joking, that that was what I’d do instead. Which is how I ended up repeating my A-levels and fighting my way into medical school, where I qualified in 1975
The Guide #232: From documentary shock to Bafta acclaim – how the screen shaped our understanding of Tourette’s
The wildfire surrounding last week’s Bafta ceremony – where Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson involuntarily shouted a racial slur at actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo, and the BBC aired the moment – continues to rage. Criticisms have been levelled at, and investigations opened by, the Beeb and Bafta; hundreds of news stories and comment pieces have been devoted to the incident (if you read anything, make sure it’s this clear-eyed piece from Jason Okundaye, who was at the ceremony); and the climate on social media has been toxic, with much of the ire directed at Davidson himself. It’s an ire that is based on a complete misunderstanding of coprolalia, the form of Tourette syndrome (TS) that Davidson has, which results in the unintended and completely involuntary utterance of offensive or inappropriate remarks.There’s an unhappy irony at play here because Davidson, arguably more than any other person in Britain, has been responsible for raising awareness of TS. There’s an unfortunate symmetry, too, to the fact that the incident was shown on primetime BBC, because that was where Davidson was first brought to national attention as the subject of the landmark 1989 documentary John’s Not Mad
From The Testament of Ann Lee to Gorillaz: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Amanda Seyfried is Shaker all over in a wild period drama, while Damon Albarn and his cartoon cohort return with a polyglot offeringThe Testament of Ann LeeOut now In Mona Fastvold’s critically acclaimed drama, Amanda Seyfried shakes things up as the founder of the restorationist Christian sect the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. More commonly known as the Shakers, the egalitarian ecstatic worship group coalesced round the visionary female leader in the 18th century.Scream 7Out now The Kevin Williamson-scripted Scream films (1, 2, 4) are probably the best in the franchise, and this time he not only writes but directs the antics of Ghostface et al. Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard and Courteney Cox all make appearances, regardless of whether you thought their characters were dead or not.SirâtOut now In the deserts of southern Morocco, a man searches for his missing daughter, enlisting the help of a group of partygoers who tell of a rave deep in the desert where perhaps she can be found
Pulp have the last word in Adelaide festival saga with triumphant opening gig
Britpop rockers wow crowd and say all voices are ‘important’ in wake of Randa Abdel-Fattah controversyGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast“All voices are important,” the Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker told an adoring crowd in Adelaide on Friday. “All voices should be heard.”Message received. At one point Pulp had pulled out of the opening gig at the Adelaide festival over the Adelaide writers’ week (AWW) furore.But they turned up, they wowed the 10,000-strong crowd, and while Cocker didn’t explicitly say his comment was a reference to the brouhaha around AWW, it was pretty clear
‘A big burden for farmers’: Gulf shipping crisis threatens food price shock
Woolworths shoppers concerned new anti-theft gates may trap them and hit their children
Rachel Reeves should scrap the North Sea windfall tax now
How will war in the Middle East affect your finances?
South West Water admits criminal offence over Devon parasite outbreak
UK motor fuel prices rise since Middle East conflict began, and energy bills could jump 10% in July – as it happened