Formula 1 might be an old sport but its DNA is hardwired in the talent of the youngsters.
Young and fast.
That’s what all want to see. And a certain Australian has risen to represent just that.
Oscar Piastri made his debut in F1 in the 2023 season, racing for McLaren alongside Lando Norris, after winning both Formula Renault Eurocup 2019, and Formula 2 championships 2020, and 2021.
He is the only driver in history to have ever done this. Not bad?
2024 is Oscar’s second season in F1, which should also explain a thing or two about his brilliance in that it’s taken him just his second year in the top flight of MotorRacing to clinch a win.
As RedBull lost their dominance, McLaren have taken the fight to them, besting RedBull in the last six Grand Prix in total points earned for the Constructor’s Championship.
Out of these six races Piastri has been on the podium four times, also beating his teammate Lando Norris three times out of six.
When Oscar was Hungary at the Hungaroring
Lando Norris is a much more experienced driver than Oscar, since he debuted in F1 in 2019, but still Oscar has managed to best him multiple times this season. Oscar bested Lando in Hungary, taking his first win in Formula 1.
It was amazing how he controlled the car and the race from the very start. It is amazing how Oscar has adapted to the McLaren MCL38, after having much less seat time in a Formula 1 car than Lando Norris.
It speaks great volumes about his skill as a driver and his ability to adapt to any car and take it to victory. His performance is much more consistent than Lando recently.
How events unfolded for McLaren back in Monza?
Oscar has been a good teammate to Lando as well as given Lando fierce competition when it’s just them fighting for the win.
But he is not one to back off, just because Lando is ahead in the Championship points. It was evident at the Italian Grand Prix, Oscar was P2 and Lando P3.
Oscar could have ceded his position to Lando bringing him closer to Max Verstappen in the points, but Oscar never backed off of Leclerc, hoping to use his much newer tires to overtake Leclerc and take the win at Monza. Lando tried as hard as possible, but Oscar proved too good to beat this weekend. Only losing to Leclerc, due to the fault in the strategy adopted by the team for last weekend and the unexpected increased graining in their tires.
Dubious strategy by McLaren?
McLaren could easily have gone for a one stop-strategy and it seemed, were destined to win the Italian Grand Prix.
However, the team decided early on that to prevent Leclerc from undercutting Oscar, Oscar should pit.
Which he did, and lost to Leclerc because of it.
The irony of it all seems too evident as to not form jokes around it.
Nonetheless, Oscar showed how great a racing driver he is. He had the same car, same tires, as Lando Norris, but he was better and faster than Norris.
Piastri managed to gain a large lead ahead of Norris, enough so that even though Norris would pit earlier for the second time as well. Oscar had no chance of being undercut by him.
So, as the 23-year-old came out of the pits for a second time, while behind both Ferraris, he still had a nine second lead on Norris. The Briton couldn’t manage to catch up no matter how hard he tried.
In the end, Oscar Piastri finished second, 2 seconds behind Leclerc, and in came in a very frustrated Norris in third, another 3.5 seconds behind Oscar.
The Rising Star
Even though Lando Norris is McLaren’s ‘Golden Boy’ (they prefer Papaya), Oscar Piastri is not one to let the ‘Golden Boy’ take his glory. Oscar Piastri is young, he is fast, he has the confidence, he knows what it takes to win and his not afraid to go and get it.