We show that both are caused by the same phenomenon: the formation of an oxide-like phase on the catalyst at high potentials. This unified treatment of thermodynamic and kinetic effects through the lens of oxide formation represents a significant departure from traditional approaches that treat these phenomena separately, offering new insights into the fundamental mechanisms of ORR catalysis. On multiple points we link our results with existing phenomena described in the literature, such as the place-exchange mechanism and the RDS on the oxide covered catalyst. Similarly, numerical values provided by our model are close to known values; the onset potential of oxidation is close to 0.8 V, the place-exchange mechanism is found close to 1.05 V, the activation energy of the RDS on the oxide-covered catalyst is between 0.6 and 0.7 eV, and the current density at 0.9 V is between 0.1 and 0.4 mA/cm 2 . These values were obtained through simulations using the recent MACE-MP-0 foundation model, providing new quantitative insights that complement existing experimental and theoretical studies in the literature. Using this approach, we effectively explain the significant overpotential of the ORR on Pt-based catalyst by bridging the gap between thermodynamic and kinetic arguments using state-of-the-art ML forcefield and established theoretical principles.