Oscar Piastri does not believe Max Verstappen was serious with his claim he would have dominated the Japanese Grand Prix in McLaren’s car.
The Red Bull driver led McLaren’s Lando Norris and Piastri home by 2.1 seconds at Suzuka. Afterwards he told Dutch media he would have left them well behind had he also been in a McLaren.
Asked whether he thought Verstappen intends his comments as a joke, Piastri said: “Yes, but I think if Max had qualified third and we were first and second, it probably would have looked quite different as well. So I think it was lighthearted.”
Verstappen beat Norris and Piastri to pole position by less than five hundredths of a second, then kept them behind throughout Sunday’s race to claim his first victory of 2025.
“Qualifying made a very big difference,” said Piastri. “I don’t think it’s normal to have two cars sitting two seconds behind the leader for 50 laps.
“So I think it was kind of clear to see that our car was quicker but I think the gaps would have been quite different if we had been the other way around from the start as well.”
However Piastri said he doesn’t have any desire to drive Verstappen’s Red Bull. “Clearly the car looks pretty difficult,” he said.
“I think we’ve seen that with Liam [Lawson], we saw with Checo [Perez] last year, even with Yuki [Tsunoda] in Japan.
“So again, I think going into an environment where that has been so focused on the way Max drives for nearly 10 years now, I think it would be a very tough environment to go into and have immediate success. I’m quite happy that I’m driving a McLaren and not a Red Bull at the moment.”
This article will be updated
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Go ad-free for just £1 per month
>> Find out more and sign up
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
