Comparing Piastri and Webber's agonizing near-miss title campaigns

Oscar Piastri's 2025 championship bid ended in Abu Dhabi, mirroring the fate of his fellow Australian Mark Webber 15 years earlier. Both drivers mounted formidable title challenges, only to finish third in ultra-competitive seasons, their hopes dashed in the final round by a teammate who clinched the crown.

Why it matters:

Piastri's near-miss cements his status as a future champion but also highlights the fine margins in Formula 1. His campaign, eerily similar to Webber's 2010 heartbreak, underscores how even a season of brilliance can unravel without the final piece of consistency or luck required to seal a title.

The details:

• Final Standings: Both drivers secured third place in the championship. Piastri led for much of 2025 before a late-season dip, while Webber held a 14-point lead with three rounds remaining in 2010, yet neither could convert their strong positions into a title.
• Victory Tally: Piastri's campaign was marked by greater dominance, with seven wins—including a streak of three consecutive victories—compared to Webber's four. This created a different dynamic; 2025 was largely a McLaren duel before Max Verstappen's late surge, whereas 2010 featured a four-way fight into the Abu Dhabi finale.
• Qualifying Edge: Single-lap performance was crucial for both. Piastri secured six pole positions, one more than Webber's five. Notably, Webber's qualifying prowess peaked over the 2010 summer with poles at Monaco, Turkey, and Belgium, while Piastri failed to take a pole after the Dutch Grand Prix as his form faded post-summer break.
• The Crushing Blow: In both cases, the final race delivered the ultimate sting. Neither Piastri nor Webber won the season finale, and on both occasions, it was their teammate—Lando Norris in 2025 and Sebastian Vettel in 2010—who won the race and, with it, the world championship.

The big picture:

While Piastri's raw numbers—more wins, poles, and podiums—suggest a statistically stronger campaign than Webber's, both seasons were defined by agonizing what-ifs. Key moments, like Piastri's crash in Azerbaijan and Webber's retirement in South Korea, proved decisive. Their stories are a testament to the relentless pressure and microscopic margins that separate champions from contenders in Formula 1, showing that leading a campaign is not the same as finishing it.

What's next:

For Piastri, the 2025 season is a foundational chapter. The experience of leading a title fight and the pain of losing it will be invaluable as McLaren aims to build a car capable of sustaining a challenge across an entire season. The question now is whether he can avoid Webber's fate of becoming a perennial contender and instead take the final step to become Australia's first world champion since Alan Jones in 1980.