Oscar Piastri believes it would have been easy for his relationship with Lando Norris to “have got nasty” during their title race last year.
The McLaren star led the championship for a large part of the season before losing out to his teammate.
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But by November he was asked to help Norris win the title, a few weeks after the pair crashed at the Canadian Grand Prix and at the sprint race in Austin.
Piastri was also told to let Norris pass him at the Italian Grand Prix so his teammate could finish second.
But the Aussie insists there is no bad blood between the pair, despite some fans feeling others.
“In all honesty I don’t think it really changed, which I don’t think anyone really believes,” Piastri told the High Performance podcast.
“Because I think we both knew the situation we were in of trying to beat each other and only one of us could win. We knew all of that. But it never, it never got nasty.
“And I think that’s a really important thing, because I think it would have been very easy for last year to have got nasty.
“And well, there would have probably been, if it really got bad, the question of whether one of us was even sat here doing this interview wearing orange.
“But I think just the team dynamics is so important to protect going forward.
“Obviously we’ve not quite started this year the way we want, but it would have been so easy for the battle of last year to make it look 10 times worse and 10 times worse for a long time. So I think we both knew that as well.”
Part of the reason for Piastri’s positivity is likely inspired by his belief that he can become world champion, which he confirmed in the podcast appearance.
Asked when he gained that self-belief, Piastri said: “Probably at Melbourne last year [2025].
“In the history books I finished ninth and it wasn’t a race filled with great memories but I left that race knowing I had taken a big step from the year before.
“I knew I had some steps and improvements to make but I knew that I was really close to being able to maximise my potential.
“I knew if I could get close to my potential I could win race.”
Despite his unwavering belief, Piastri has got off to a difficult start this season, failing to start in Melbourne and in China before a second-place finish in Japan.
That means he goes into this weekend’s grand prix in Miami in sixth place – one position behind Norris but 51 points off leader Kimi Antonelli.
