David Coulthard disagreed with one thing Oscar Piastri did during his ‘flawless’ Bahrain Grand Prix victory

Oscar Piastri now has four Grand Prix victories under his belt as a Formula 1 driver in his first 50 starts.

McLaren will be delighted that Oscar Piastri has started the 2025 season so strongly, and his winning record already puts him ahead of many of his rivals when it comes to reaching that tally.

His teammate Lando Norris had to wait until his 110th Grand Prix start to stand on the top step of the podium, while Max Verstappen had only won a single race at that point in his F1 career.

The Bahrain Grand Prix was the latest stunning victory for the Australian, taking pole position and the fastest lap in the process.

Piastri ended the race with a 15-second advantage over George Russell, with Norris unable to overtake the rapidly failing Mercedes.

In the process of winning the race, Piastri broke one of Ayrton Senna’s McLaren records, and while another former McLaren driver, David Coulthard, was thoroughly impressed, there was one decision he made that the Scot disagreed with.

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David Coulthard questions Oscar Piastri’s safety car restart at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Coulthard was analysing the race for Channel 4 in Bahrain, and at the conclusion of the Grand Prix, he spoke to Piastri.

Coulthard said: “I just can’t believe in the history of McLaren that they haven’t won here!

“Also, I’m blown away by your performance this weekend, flawless after quali, flawless during the race.

“You were minding your own business, managing the tyres, they throw a safety car that we still can’t work out exactly what that was for, when maybe a virtual [safety car] would have been [sufficient].

“But you kept calm, and I thought you had made a very late decision to restart the Grand Prix, but did you because it got busy behind?”

Hamilton gets Norris at the restart! 😵

Sparkling wheel-to-wheel action under the Bahrain lights ✨#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/QKvYuBJXV1

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 14, 2025

Piastri responded: “I mean did pretty much what I wanted to do, or I went when I wanted to go, and then missed the apex by about a metre, and that didn’t help things.

“Right idea, not the best execution, but it was good enough, so yeah, that was really the only moment where I felt like the race could get away from us a bit, but I managed to hang on.

“With George [Russell] on the softs, that was a bit of a risk, but we thought the medium was going to be much better for the rest of the race, which I think it was.

“So yeah, that was really the only moment after the start, the rest was smooth sailing.”

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Oscar Piastri putting Lando Norris under serious pressure within McLaren

Although Verstappen had a tough race for Red Bull, it’s impossible to write the reigning champion off at this stage of the campaign.

Red Bull believe McLaren will be hampered by the changing regulations at the Spanish Grand Prix, although it’s hard to believe Christian Horner’s team will be in any sort of position to capitalise.

It means that there’s a possibility that the drivers’ championship becomes a two-horse race between Piastri and Norris.

Norris is the more experienced driver and understandably started the season as many people’s favourite.

His win in Australia was unbelievable, while Piastri made a crucial error that saw him do well to recover to P9.

However, McLaren staff believe Piastri is Norris’ biggest threat now, and his victories in China and Bahrain were ruthless.