Why Oscar Piastri's ability to adapt puts him alongside the very best

F1

With various Formula 1 teams interested in signing him, what separates Oscar Piastri from the rest?

2022-Alpine-reserve-driver-Oscar-Piastri

Piastri signed his McLaren contract in July

Clive Mason/Getty Images

Author

Edward Hardy

Formula 1 is only a few days into its summer break, yet driver market movements have been occurring at full speed.

And at the centre of it is the 21-year-old Australian Oscar Piastri, who hasn’t yet started a grand prix, but appears to have had at least three teams chasing his services.

The storm began last Thursday when Sebastian Vettel announced his decision to retire at the end of the year, which led to Monday’s shock Aston Martin announcement that Fernando Alonso will be his replacement.

That neatly solved Alpine’s problem of having the promising 2021 F2 champion Piastri on its books, but without a Formula 1 drive.

Or at least it seemed to, until Alpine announced that Piastri would drive for the team in 2023. That was quickly followed by an unequivocal denial from its young hotshot. “I will not be driving for Alpine next year,” wrote Piastri.

Before Alonso had vacated an Alpine seat, Piastri had been in discussion with Williams about a 2023 seat with the team. Now, it’s increasingly clear that he is also talking to McLaren about potentially replacing no less than Daniel Ricciardo.

It’s a lot of fuss for a driver who’s unproven at the top level. Can he really be worth it?

In a word, yes.

Piastri has risen through the ranks in stunningly rapid time, winning Formula Renault, Formula 3 and Formula 2 in consecutive years, which immediately marked out the Australian as a rare talent. No driver has managed that feat in recent years, including Charles Leclerc and George Russell, who both won consecutive F3 and F2 seasons.

But it’s also the way that he did it which really got F1 team principals to take notice.

Motor Racing – Formula One World Championship – Sakhir Grand Prix – Race Day – Sakhir, Bahrain

Six victories and 11 podiums helped Piastri win the F2 title with two races to spare

In his second Formula Renault season in 2019, Piastri’s superiority over the grid was demonstrated at the Nürburgring, midway through the year, where he won both races that weekend.

He qualified on pole by seven-tenths and won the first race, despite losing the lead and having to fight back. He then followed that with a dominating victory in the second race, crossing the line 14sec ahead of anybody else to give him a championship lead of 40 points.

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His performances that year caught the eye of Renault, which monitored him as he moved up to Formula 3 and immediately adapted to win on his debut. That season was spent fighting Logan Sargeant and Théo Pourchaire for the title; a fight that came down to the final round in Mugello.

The Australian went nowhere near the podium that weekend, but showed the talent, grit — and luck — of a champion after starting 16th in the first race and then finishing out of the points in 11th.

That put him and team-mate Sargeant level on points going into the final race of the season, but Piastri started 11th on the grid, behind Sargeant in fifth and Pourchaire, still in title contention, who started eighth.

Piastri made up four places at the start before a safety car, triggered by a crash involving Sargeant which put him out of the race. Piastri should have then strolled to the championship, but he fell to tenth at the restart as Pourchaire began making progress, moving up to third.

It would have made the Frenchman champion hadn’t Piastri persisted and fought his way up to seventh to claim the title by just three points.

Oscar Piastri wins the 2021 F2 Sochi feature race

Piastri wins at Sochi in F2

Alpine

That brought him a contract with the Alpine Academy and a promotion to F2 where he once again won on his debut weekend.

“It was always a two-year plan, but after a couple of rounds, we knew he was there,” said his Prema team boss René Rosin in 2021.

“He never gets into a panic, he never gets worried, he always listens to what people are telling him to do, and he tries to adapt as best as possible.

“He is very calm, very technically dedicated and an amazing guy to work with. We were expecting him to be a frontrunner, but maybe not to fight for the championship.”

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Piastri stormed the 2021 F2 season, winning by 60 points, while qualifying on pole in each of the final five rounds.

He left his rivals little hope after the penultimate round in Jeddah where he qualified on pole and won two of the races to take a 51.5 point lead into the final weekend where there were 65 points on offer.

Piastri’s record suggests he should already be on the F1 grid by merit, but he faced a logjam in the form of Alonso and Esteban Ocon for the current season.

Alpine already had two top drivers under contract for 2022, while the only driver to be promoted from F2 was Zhou Guanyu, aided by the financial backing he brings with him.

Since then Piastri has tested for Alpine, and joined McLaren’s pool of reserve drivers, should it need an emergency stand-in.

Maybe this is what triggered talks between him and McLaren about the possibility of a 2023 seat.

What happens next is anyone’s guess, but when Piastri does find a seat, it will be fascinating to watch how quickly he can adapt to grand prix racing after his immediate success in lower formulae.

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