No bull – Piastri muscles up for the arm wrestle with Verstappen

Max Verstappen is your typically gung-ho, devil-may-care, F1 alpha male. Oscar Piastri is so sensitive he may be picking daisies and reciting poetry this very moment.

Oscar Piastri during his drive for third place at the Japanese Grand Prix Picture: Getty Images

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are giggling away like impish little schoolboys while hooked up to a lie detector. Their loquaciousness and light-headedness during their rather entertaining eight-minute love-in comes before their mate-versus-mate, McLaren-versus-McLaren, impish-little-schoolboy-versus-impish-little-schoolboy battle for the Formula One drivers’ championship.

Norris: “Have you ever Googled yourself?”

Piastri: “Yes.”

Norris: “Do you think you’re the best driver on the grid?”

Piastri: “Yes. Everyone has to think they’re the best.”

Norris: “Do you look at fan ­accounts of yourself?”

Piastri: “Aw, I mean, I come across them, like, on TikTok or whatever.”

Norris: “Am I the best teammate you’ve ever had?”

Piastri: “You’re the only teammate I’ve ever had in F1, so …”

Norris: “Am I the best in any of your racing?”

Piastri: “Sure.”

Norris: “Sure? Who answers sure!”

All Piastri’s answers are registered as true. The drivers trade places.

Piastri: “Have you ever Googled yourself?”

Norris: “Oh, 100 per cent! All the time.”

Piastri: “All the time?”

Norris: “I’m always trying to see if I’m in trouble. I always Twitter myself.”

Piastri: “Do you think you’re the best-looking driver on the grid?”

Norris: “No.”

Piastri: “Have you pretended to be someone else when you’re recognised in public?”

Norris: “Oh, yeah. If someone asks me, ‘Are you Lando?,’ sometimes I’ll say, ‘No.’ You’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do.”

Piastri: “Have you ever ­ignored someone you know in public?”

Norris: “I might have.”

Piastri: “Am I a funny teammate?”

Norris: “No. You have your ­serious face, mate. I’ll give you a year to loosen up.”

Piastri: “Do you think you’d beat me in an arm wrestle?”

Norris: “No.”

They laugh at the sizes of their biceps, or lack thereof, resisting the temptation to lock hands and settle matters over the coffee table.

They’re involved in a different sort of arm wrestle, of course, for the F1 title, but the burning question ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix is whether either McLaren driver is rough and tough enough to muscle up and defeat Max Verstappen.

The brute. Red Bull’s brilliant, bullish four-time world champion won last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix with a qualifying lap from the gods and a race so masterful it might have been the drive of his life. Verstappen’s clunky old RB21 isn’t as swift or steady as McLaren’s MCL39 dream machines and yet he held off Piastri and Norris at Suzuka as though sheer willpower was the only fuel he needed.

“Max, without any debate, is the best driver in the world currently,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner said.

And it was impossible to argue. Currently.

Verstappen might be the greatest driver who ever lived. He’s made for the arm wrestle. He was probably born arm-wrestling the doctor. He arm-wrestled Daniel Ricciardo out of the Red Bull garage. Arm-wrestled past the kingly Lewis Hamilton for his first world title. Arm-wrestled his way to three more championships. He’s arm-wrestled his way to second on this year’s standings despite his inferior vehicle. There’s hasn’t been a V this powerful since the red one worn by the St George Dragons in the 1950s and ’60s.

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri walks through the paddock at the Bahrain International Circuit Picture: AP

He’s your typically gung-ho, devil-may-care, F1 alpha male. Whereas Piastri is so sensitive he may be picking daisies and reciting poetry this very moment.

I’m reminded of a funny little occurrence during the Australian Open in January. A VIP seat for Jannik Sinner versus Ben Shelton had Piastri’s name on it. He was so close to the action he could have called the lines.

He was still raving about his rare access to the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s hallowed turf during the Boxing Day Test. Such is life in the fast and privileged lane … doors are opened everywhere, lanyards and wrist bands pile up like casino chips, you can skip any queue on earth. With time on his hands before he was due at Rod Laver Arena – Piastri had a better seat than Laver! – he went to one of the million cafes in his home city.

“I know this isn’t very Melbourne of me,” he said. “But I’ll have a hot chocolate.”

Such a small thing, and such an endearingly humorous thing, and somehow such a memorable thing. It was very Piastri. In a city where locals are forever choosing between espressos, piccolos, long blacks, flat whites, cappuccinos, lattes and frappes, as long as it’s coffee, the F1 superstar, a born-and-bred Melburnian, a local to his racing bootstraps, wanted a hot choccy.

He’s equally unique in F1. Surrounded by hotheads, bigheads, loudmouths and assorted individuals who don’t mind tooting their own horns, he’s the polar opposite, quietly and efficiently playing his trade.

Max Verstappen produced one of the drives of his career at the Japanese Grand Prix Picture: AFP

“It’s been three very encouraging race weekends so far in 2025,” Piastri said at Sakhir. “I’ve had very strong pace and I’m taking real momentum with me to Bahrain. The car feels great, so credit to the team for all the hard work. I’m looking forward to getting down to business.”

Piastri and Norris are no longer doing cute videos in which they giggle away like impish little twenty-somethings while hooked up to a lie detector. Loquaciousness, light-headedness and eight-minute love-ins are a thing of the past. They get along remarkably well but their rivalry has become too intense for impish frivolities. The stakes are too high and heavy. Norris (62 points) leads the drivers’ championship from Verstappen (61) and Piastri (49) ahead of the first night race of the season at Sakhir on Monday at 1am (AEST).

Verstappen sledged Piastri and Norris by claiming if he was in a McLaren, he would have won the Japanese GP by a mile. Funny because it was true?

“I think it was a bit of a joke,” Piastri said.

“I think if Max had qualified third and we were first and second, it probably would have looked quite different as well.

“I think it was lighthearted but I do think qualifying made a very big difference. I don’t think it’s normal to have two cars sitting two seconds behind the leader for 50 laps. It was kind of clear to see that our car was quicker.

“The gaps would have been quite different if we’d been the other way around from the start.“

No bull, no word of a lie, qualifying is crucial. Pole position has won all three races this year.

Asked how he would fare in a Red Bull, Piastri replied: “I don’t know. I don’t plan on finding out! The car looks pretty difficult. Going into an environment (at Red Bull) that has been so focused on the way Max drives for nearly 10 years, I think it would be a very tough environment to go into and have immediate success. I’m quite happy I’m driving a McLaren and not a Red Bull at the moment.”