Former F1 racer equates Oscar Piastri’s Belgian GP debut to Michael Schumacher’s, claims ‘a star was established’ at Spa
Karun Chandhok recently claimed Oscar Piastri might emulate Michael Schumacher's prowess in Formula 1.
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Oscar Piastri’s recruitment at McLaren is one of the most interesting F1 silly season stories in recent times. The Aussie racer was appointed under Alpine as a reserve driver owing to his spectacular records as a Formula 3 and Formula 2 Champion. When Fernando Alonso left the French squad for Aston Martin, Alpine announced Piastri as their new recruit instantly. But Oscar Piastri denied his appointment at Alpine and subsequently announced he was going to race alongside Lando Norris at McLaren in 2023.
When McLaren fought tooth and nail with Alpine to recruit rookie driver Oscar Piastri in place of the 8-times Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo, the F1 community was baffled. The Australian youngster who hails from Perth came into his debut season in the highest league of motorsports amidst massive public scrutiny even before he had participated in his first Formula 1 race.
Undoubtedly, the expectations were at an all time high for Piastri as well. And he did deliver with two spectacular fourth and fifth positions in Britain and Hungary.
Owing to the young racer’s obvious show of talent, former F1 racer Karun Chandhok said, “He (Piastri) established himself as a star this weekend (Belgium). I know Sunday didn’t play out for him. But same thing, I go back to Michael Schumacher’s SPA debut. It only lasted as far as Piastri’s did at the first few 100 metres. But certainly a star was established I think.“
Oscar Piastri has already achieved great results in his debut F1 season despite initial disappointment
For the first string of Grands Prix in 2023, Oscar Piastri let his fans down in an unimaginable way. But the fault could not have been his as it is now evident the McLaren MCL-36 was too incompetent to match the speed of the rival cars. As soon as the papaya squad came to Austria, Lando Norris surprised all with a P4 finish. Despite his teammate’s success, Piastri still came 16th in the rankings. But he followed it up with a spectacular P4 finish at Silverstone and a fifth-place finish at Hungary.
While Oscar Piastri was quite late in seeing success in his first F1 season, he did achieve some astonishing results once he came to McLaren’s home base. Now, the Formula 1 circus is not going to reunite for another fifteen days until the Dutch GP arrives. During the summer break, Piastri will most probably hone his skills further on the simulator, and it remains to be seen how many points he gets for his team post the summer break.
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