It feels like yesterday when McLaren and Alpine were battling for the signature of a highly-rated 21-year-old F2 champion in the summer of 2022.
Just two years and 35 grand prix starts later, Oscar Piastri is F1’s latest GP winner. After crossing the line first in last year’s Qatar sprint, he led team-mate Lando Norris home in Hungary for the first McLaren 1-2 since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix.
In his first 18 months as a grand prix driver, Piastri’s talent and speed were clear for all to see. He offers a benchmark that keeps Norris on his toes, while reliably racking up big points scores and podium finishes as McLaren takes the fight to Red Bull.
But outside the cockpit, Piastri has given away much less on who he really is as a person, flying largely under the radar until his Budapest breakthrough triumph on Sunday.
That’s just the way the Australian likes it. Having moved to the UK at the age of 14 to chase his F1 goal, he had come too far not to go all-in on a chance many can only dream of.
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“I moved with my dad for the first six months and I was almost 15,” Piastri recounted in an interview with Autosport.
“That was in January, and in July or August and he said: ‘I’m going back to Australia to live with the rest of your family. Either you can come back with me or you can stay here, but it will mean you go to boarding school’.
Piastri broke through in 2017 when he finished second in his rookie season of British F4
Photo by: JEP/LAT Images
“I was enjoying racing in Europe and obviously wanted to try and pursue my dream of being an F1 driver, so I knew that I had to stay.”
Keeping a low profile is not too uncommon for newcomers in F1, with the demands of the series so high that every ounce of effort and attention goes towards finding performance while adjusting to the gruelling 24-race schedule and all the extra factory and PR commitments.
It would be easy for TV viewers to call Piastri “boring”, but even if he’s no match for Daniel Ricciardo at the box office, those who work with him appreciate his dry sense of humour, which has slowly been seeping through his team radio messages as well.
In recent races, he has also found his voice in media calls, and he didn’t shy away from giving his frank view on a contested track limits call in Austrian GP qualifying. But a court jester or jet-setter, he is not.
“Driving is what I really enjoy,” Piastri said…
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