“Without doubt,” Oscar Piastri’s former karting boss is certain that the Australian is world championship-material
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Oscar Piastri during the post-season Abu Dhabi test (IMAGO / PanoramiC)
Oscar Piastri will join forces with McLaren in 2023, replacing fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo. He’s had quite the decorated junior career – he won Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019, Formula 3 in 2020, and Formula 2 in 2021. But there was no seat available for him in 2022, so he had to sit the year out. Alpine planned to loan him to Williams but then announced his promotion to the main team after Fernando Alonso shockingly announced his departure. Piastri also had other plans.
Piastri has lived in Europe since his karting days, so there’s no real aspect of cultural acclimation. The man responsible for bringing him to Europe is Ricky Flynn – in 2016, the young Australian drove for Flynn’s eponymous karting team. So, next year, there will be four graduates of ‘Ricky Flynn Motorsport’ on the grid – Lando Norris, Logan Sargeant, Zhou Guanyu, and Piastri. It’s an RFM-lockout at McLaren.
Discussing Piastri’s rise in an interview with PlanetF1, Flynn talked about the early days and the Australian’s character: “He’s such a calm, cool, collected kid. He took it all in his stride. He had just moved to near London from Australia, didn’t have anybody around, but it never really fazed him. I still think that’s similar now when you see him on the grid, even if he’s on pole. In 2021, he didn’t look troubled or fazed or anything. Even back during karting, he was very mature for his years.” Zak Brown and Mark Webber gave similar accounts of Piastri.
Seeing two of their own line up together in F1 is going to be a ‘proud moment’ for the team and owner: “It will be [a] proud moment when they both push off for the first race. They both come from us. I’d like to think we helped both of them on their way to get there.” Flynn also added that both Norris and Piastri are lovely to work with: “We enjoyed every minute of our work with both of them so I’m sure they’ll continue because they’re older and more mature and I’m sure they’ll both do a very good job this year.”
Ricky Flynn: Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris both ‘top-quality’
Oscar Piastri is the highest-rated rookie since his now-teammate Lando Norris (and George Russell). His junior career alone provides cause enough for all the excitement around him. But the fact that McLaren took a ‘leap of faith’ in him over other more experienced drivers to replace Daniel Ricciardo (who was struggling, to be fair) is another thing he’s got going for him. The British team now have a very exciting (and young) driver line-up at their disposal.
Ricky Flynn even thinks both McLaren drivers are world championship material: “Without doubt [Piastri can win the World Championship]. Same with Lando. If you look at his record in F2, F3, you don’t win Championships if you’re not top quality, and they are both obviously top quality. Oscar has got a little bit more to prove in his first year than Lando will have but I’m sure he’ll come up and be very, very good. Given the right car, I’m sure then he’ll be challenging for victories, podiums and titles.”
The first man to beat is your teammate. While in 2023, Piastri will still be learning the ropes, the hope around him will be to at least perform better than Daniel Ricciardo did. There’s also going to be a lot of external pressure on him, especially considering how he joined the team – with the whole summer battle with Alpine. Next season will be a trial by fire. But he also needs some time to fully blossom. He’s got the talent, but neither McLaren nor fans (or anybody) should be impatient.
In case you missed it:
- Mark Webber thinks fellow Aussies Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo are ‘pretty different’
- McLaren CEO: ‘Mature’ Oscar Piastri didn’t rise to Otmar Szafnauer’s ‘unpleasant’ and ‘inaccurate’ statements
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)