Horner backs 'motivated' Piastri to bounce back after tough end to 2025

Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes Oscar Piastri "will have learned a huge amount" from the 2025 season and will be "motivated" to bounce back.

After an impressive start to just his third season in Formula 1, the Australian took control of the title race after the summer break with a win at the Dutch Grand Prix, jumping out to a 34-point lead after an issue forced teammate Lando Norris to retire.

However, a drop-off in form right to the end of the season derailed Piastri's campaign, scoring just 99 points across the next nine races compared to Norris' 148, enough for the Brit to go and win his maiden title, just two points ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.

Lando Norris won the 2025 World Championship with 423 points, while Oscar Piastri finished in third with 410 points - Photo: Race Pictures

"Oscar will have learned a huge amount from last year," Horner stated while speaking on the Today programme on Australian television, believing that more is to come in F1 for the 24-year-old.

"I thought he was odds-on favourite going into the summer break, and unfortunately, it sort of fell apart for him at the end of the season. But he will learn from that, and it will have hurt him and ultimately motivated him.

"You forget that the guy's only done a couple of seasons in Formula 1, he's relatively inexperienced, and I think he's just going to get better and better, and he's going to be fully motivated for the season ahead."

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Preparations continue to ramp up towards the opening race of the season in Melbourne after the first set of winter tests took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

McLaren ticked one of the biggest boxes going into the week in terms of their reliability after many miles were completed, but they were off the pace of the Mercedes and Ferrari, with the latter finishing top of the timing sheets thanks to Lewis Hamilton.

Lando Norris in action in Barcelona - Photo: McLaren Mastercard F1 Team

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was pleased with how his team performed in Barcelona, but also pointed to some areas that could see great improvement before the start of the campaign.

"I believe that one of the areas where there is great room for improvement is in exploiting the new power unit and all the options available to the driver," the Italian explained in a McLaren testing debrief.

Winter testing in Bahrain gets underway on February 11-13 and 18-20.