Speaking at the Kayo Sports Motorsport Launch in Melbourne on Tuesday night, Croft singled out the Australian as his pick in what he expects to be a tightly fought title battle.
Piastri enters his fourth full F1 season after finishing third in the 2025 drivers’ championship, just 13 points behind McLaren teammate and eventual world champion Lando Norris.
The Melburnian claimed seven race wins last year and led the standings for much of the season before a difficult six-race stretch from Azerbaijan to Las Vegas saw him relinquish control of the title fight and slip behind both Norris and a resurgent Max Verstappen.
Despite his late-season dip in form, Croft said he saw clear evidence of growth from the Australian driver, declaring him “a world champion in the making”.
“He has all the attributes to be a fine world champion and has displayed in his second and third seasons an ability to learn and improve from his first year or the previous season before it,” Croft added.
Croft pointed specifically to the late-season dip in 2025 as an area where the McLaren driver is likely to respond strongly.
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“Last year wasn’t great in terms of that run of six races from Baku onwards,” he added.
“He will have learned how to adapt to a lower grip track that doesn’t necessarily suit his driving style, but to come away with better results for this year.
“And I’m sure he has left no stone unturned in finding ways to improve during the course of this winter.”
Croft said including Piastri, he expects the title fight to be contested by six drivers across four teams.
“I think the top four teams of Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull, in that order coming out of testing, have six drivers within those teams that realistically have an opportunity to become champion,” he explained.
“Max Verstappen, you can’t discount. Look at the way he stormed back last year. One of the great recovery half seasons from Max Verstappen and from Red Bull.
“George Russell at Mercedes, who is a world champion in the making and has looked like that for years and has never had the car. This year he might just have that.
“Lewis Hamilton, who’s won eight, sorry seven world titles during his career. Should be eight. One day I’d love to see it become eight. He deserves to have eight. He is the greatest we’ve ever seen.
“And Charles Leclerc. Ferrari are starting on a much better footing this year than they have in recent years.
“Lando Norris, the current world champion with the number one on his car and that pressure of expectation off his shoulders. But a new pressure comes his way now as a defending champion.”
Pressed for a definitive pick, Croft ultimately landed on Piastri as his choice for who would be crowned 2026 champion.
“If you’re going to press me, Oscar is the guy that I think will be a world champion at the end of this year because of the way that he’s improved in the past, and because of the way he ran Lando, who’s had a few more seasons, so close last year,” he said.
“But there realistically is six that could do this.”
Croft said he expected the 2026 campaign to be unpredictable amid sweeping regulation changes, suggesting the championship battle could run deep into the calendar.
“It’s going to be a really exciting season,” he said.
“One team might start better than the others. Others will then catch up.
“I think we’re going to go all the way to the final couple of rounds before we find a champion.”
The veteran commentator also warned that the early flyaway run from Australia through to Japan will provide little immediate clarity on the competitive order.
“Albert Park is very different to Bahrain,” he said.
“So we go from Bahrain testing to Albert Park, a completely different track. We go to China, a completely different track. We go to Japan, a completely different track. And so on and so forth.
“Every single round this year is a new learning and a new adventure for the drivers and for the teams.”
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