Oscar Piastri said he has "learned a lot" this year and gave it "absolutely everything" in the three-way fight for the Formula 1 world championship, as his McLaren teammate Lando Norris came out on top in the final race of the 2025 season at Abu Dhabi.
Piastri finished second in the race after overtaking Norris on the first lap and never dropped below third where he started. But Norris' third-place finish was good enough to clinch the title, two points ahead of Max Verstappen, and 13 points ahead of Piastri.
"We gave it everything," Piastri said when asked if he was satisfied with his race. "We tried a gamble on strategy, yeah, tried absolutely everything to try and win the race and give ourselves the best chance to win the championship, but ultimately we didn't have the pace today."
Norris and Piastri have been in a close championship battle all season with seven wins apiece, and 16 podiums for Piastri to Norris' 18. Their results were enough for McLaren to claim back-to-back constructors' titles as early as the Singapore Grand Prix in October.
"It's been a fun challenge, I think," Piastri said. "Obviously at certain points maybe it doesn't feel that fun but I think it's been a really enjoyable season for both of us probably, and I'm saying that as the person who is not champion."
Norris, who joined McLaren in 2018, five years before Piastri, said in his post-race interview to Sky Sports F1 he has learned a lot from Piastri this year.
"I'm lucky," Norris said. "The team have given me an incredible car that has made my life very easy. At times I've still struggled. And even I struggled against Oscar, you know. Oscar's done an incredible job.
"I'm glad I've had Oscar, you know, the last three years because even though, he's still a lot newer to it than me, I've learned a lot from him. And he showed me up at many times and I've managed to learn a lot from him.
"I wouldn't be the driver I am today without that, of course. Also with my other teammates, you know, with Carlos [Sainz], with Daniel [Ricciardo] the last few years. But he's made me have to dig even deeper than I ever have before because by the midpoint of the season he was performing better than I was and doing a better job consistently."
When it was put to Piastri that Norris said he had learned from his teammate, the 24-year-old Australian said it's nice to know it goes both ways.
"I've learned plenty of things along the way," Piastri said. "And even in the last three years I've learned things every weekend from what Lando does and it's nice to know it goes both ways, so there's plenty more years to come of intense weekends and tight battles but ultimately I think that's made both of us better drivers and I think some ways contributed to the success both of us have had this year."
Earlier on in the season, Piastri created a comfortable gap as championship leader as he led the standings from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in April, through to Mexico in October when Norris overtook him and his strong performances had started to peter out.
The Australian suffered a disastrous weekend crashing out of qualifying and the race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and again in Brazil, and had a string of disappointing results in Austin and Singapore.
To add insult to injury, McLaren were disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, bringing Verstappen closer to an opportunity to claim a fifth world title and take it out of McLaren's hands.
At the Qatar Grand Prix last weekend, Piastri looked set to take a clean sweep of all sessions across the weekend and reduce his points gap to Norris going into the season finale. But a strategy blunder by McLaren under an early safety car saw Verstappen run away with the race win, and Piastri come into the final race at Yas Marina with an uphill battle for the world title.
Despite the dispiriting end to the season, Piastri spoke of the lessons he's taken this year. "I think when things have been good this year I've felt unstoppable at points," he said.
"To even be able to get to that point is a pretty cool feeling to have. There's been plenty of times when that's not been the case and I think I've learned a lot of lessons on how to deal with tough moments, adversity from different directions, so ultimately I've learned a lot about myself.
"I've obviously been in championship battles before in the junior categories but in F1 it's got a little bit extra to it, so I've learned plenty about that this year and that will only help me going forward."