Oscar Piastri debuted brilliantly for McLaren in 2023, joining the team to partner Lando Norris after a fiasco contract situation with Alpine. Piastri managed to cope extremely well with the pressure that comes with moving to the highest tier of motorsport, matching his teammate across most of the season.

The Australian managed to take two podiums and a sprint win to help McLaren recover to fourth place in the Constructors’ standings after a difficult start to 2023. Piastri has said that he expects McLaren to start much stronger in 2024 to build up from there to try and catch the dominant Red Bull and repeat their successful 2023 weekends across next year. 

I think we're fully expecting next year to go into the year fighting for more, or at least making our good weekends we've had this year every weekend. But I'm sure Mercedes and Ferrari have the same idea. So we will try our best, definitely try and start it a little better than we did this year.

Piastri said, as reported by autosport.com

McLaren managed two double podiums in 2023, the only squad to manage the feat other than Red Bull. The Woking-based team has a strong driver line-up going into the upcoming 2024 season, with both driver contracts extended to the end of the 2025 season.

Mark Webber reveals Oscar Piastri’s reluctance to replace Daniel Ricciardo

In 2022, Oscar Piastri was the Alpine reserve driver set to continue in that role for 2023 until Sebastian Vettel’s abrupt retirement from the sport. Vettel’s retirement caused Fernando Alonso to leave Alpine for the now-open spot at Aston Martin, which left Alpine without a driver for the 2023 season. 

Piastri was the obvious choice to fill the Alpine vacuum, but after Alpine announced his contract signing without informing him, he denied agreeing to a deal with the French team. Instead, the Australian replaced his compatriot Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren. Piastri’s manager, multiple race winner Mark Webber (also from Australia) revealed that the 21-year-old was hesitant to replace Ricciardo, as he was not enthusiastic about replacing the only Australian driver on the grid.

If Oscar hadn’t replaced him this year, another driver would have done it. He said at the time that he was taking the seat from another Australian and there aren’t many of us who have raced in Formula 1.

Mark Webber said, as reported by Planetf1

Daniel Ricciardo has since found a drive on the grid in his former home, the Red Bull home. The eight-time race winner has re-signed with AlphaTauri for 2024, aiming to occupy the champion team Red Bull’s driver spot in 2025. Piastri meanwhile has won a sprint race in Ricciardo’s old team during his debut season, along with two top-three finishes.

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