F1 great Martin Brundle’s world title call after Oscar Piastri’s latest win

After Oscar Piastri’s victory at the Belgian GP, a Formula 1 veteran has dropped his verdict for the fierce world title showdown.

F1 commentator Martin Brundle has belatedly praised Oscar Piastri for his latest Grand Prix victory and made a call on the 2025 world title battle.

Starting from second on the grid, Piastri won the Belgian Grand Prix ahead of McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris, with the Aussie extending his championship lead to 16 points.

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Many fans were left fuming, however, as the Sky Sports broadcast once again focused predominantly on Englishman Norris, rather than his race-winning stable mate.

With Norris making a series of crucial errors in the closing stages as he attempted to catch Piastri, Brundle instead highlighted his compatriot’s “brilliant charge” on the broadcast.

Oscar Piastri with the spoils of victory in Belgium. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Perhaps the criticism that rained down upon him was fresh on 66-year-old Brundle’s mind when he penned a post-Spa opinion piece for the Sky Sports website.

Brundle, who picked up nine podiums in his 12-year career in the premier category, ultimately had some lofty comparisons when assessing Piastri’s drive in Belgium.

“It was a champion’s drive from Oscar Piastri in the main race on Sunday at Spa,” he wrote.

“The kind of performance reminiscent of the likes of Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, and Max Verstappen in this modern era.

“A small error at Stavelot cost him pole position to teammate Lando Norris, who had impressively homed in on peak performance overnight.

Piastri grabbed the crucial win, ahead of Lando Norris (right) and Charles Leclerc (centre). (Photo by Mark Sutton/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

“But then Piastri read and stalked his championship rival from the eventual rolling start, exited turn one La Source more cleanly, followed closely through Eau Rouge and Radillion, and kept momentum to sweep past into a lead he would not relinquish.

“This also gave him the all-important pit stop priority between the two.”

Horrendous conditions delayed the start of the race on Sunday, with it finally getting underway behind a safety car.

While Piastri jumped his teammate and grabbed the lead in the early stages, Norris was on the better compound tyre for a one-stop strategy.

It left the Aussie with a huge fight on his hands to retain the lead, particularly in the closing stages.

Brundle had high praise for the Victorian’s effort, stating he “made it look easy”.

“Because we waited so unnecessarily long to get underway, the race was much drier than expected, and this meant managing intermediate tyres through their compound destruction phase into a tread-less bald contact patch,” Brundle continued.

“The other McLaren side of the garage cleverly agreed with Norris to opt for the hard dry compound tyre, after Piastri’s medium compounds were already fitted the previous lap, which meant Lando wouldn’t have to pit again.

“Piastri then had to completely reset and coax his tyres for the remaining 70 per cent of the race, which he did with utter calmness and without error despite Norris coming back at him with increasing chunks each lap.

“Basically, he needed to deploy all the driving tools in the toolbox on the day and made it look easy.

“Lando was unlucky with having to go an extra lap on the intermediates because they were too close to do a double stack pit stop and then to compound that his stop was slow.

“As he said in the cooldown room post-race, ‘I just thought bye-bye Oscar’.”

David Croft (left) and Martin Brundle came under fire for their commentary in Belgium. (Photo by Mark Sutton/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Norris threw away any chance at victory due to those three costly mistakes as Piastri oozed class and kept his cool.

As Norris began to close the gap to Piastri, he ran wide at turn 10 and lost more than a second before losing another half a second thanks to a big lockup.

With only three laps to go and the margin down to three seconds, Norris once again locked up at turn one and saw the margin blow back out to 4.7 seconds.

Those miscalculations ultimately allowed the Aussie to hold off his teammate and secure his sixth win of the season.

But fans were left furious at the commentary, which seemed to downplay the Aussie’s masterclass and instead hinted Norris was somewhat unlucky not to win.

Piastri has earned comparisons with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. (Photo by JADE GAO/AFP)

Piastri’s win was put down to “superior race management”, while Norris’ fate was sealed by “unfortunate miscalculations”.

Fans vented their feelings towards the commentary online.

“Insufferable dribble coming from Crofty. Piastri, no mistakes on higher degrading tyres with something left in the tank at the end not mentioned at all. Let’s talk about his race management skills, which are superior to Lando’s. The bias of Crofty is oozing out of him,” one fan wrote.

“As an Aussie, the absolutely anti-Piastri commentary from Sky Sports has been disgraceful. Brundle and Crofty normally love listening to both of you every race, but today’s obsession with Lando was incredibly biased, English or not,” another said.

“Tell Crofty his sh** British Lando bias is getting out of hand! Lando is making mistakes left, right and centre and Croft still has him winning! Even after Oscar crossed the line and won, Croft was STILL crapping on about Norris. It’s time for him to go,” a third added.

Brundle noted those errors again when stating his belief – and hopes – for the remainder of the season.

“Once again in certain phases we saw the McLarens a second or two clear of the field every lap,” he wrote.

“Lando threw caution to the wind, he had nothing to lose, and he had to somehow disturb Oscar’s tyre economy run, but three errors we saw on TV meant he came up short and had to settle for second and a further loss of eight points.

“I’ve felt the same way all year, when all the stars align I believe Lando is marginally the faster, but Oscar is more consistent, makes fewer errors, and is more clinical in combat.

“And his head is always rock solid. He’ll take some beating in the closing stages now.

“Lando will need absolutely all he’s got, all the time, to win this.

“We’ve very often seen two championship combatants find an overdrive and move to a scarcely believable level of delivery, it will be interesting to see if that happens over the next three Sprints and 10 GPs.”

The Formula 1 season moves to the Hungaroring circuit this weekend for the Hungarian Grand Prix and the only place to see every F1 race live is on Kayo Sports and Foxtel.

Originally published as F1 great Martin Brundle’s world title call after Oscar Piastri’s latest win