MotorMouth
by Catherine Bruce
Oscar Piastri’s F1 career was born in a cloud of controversy when the Alpine F1 team announced via
a tweet that Piastri would be driving for them in 2023. However, Piastri quickly followed this up with
a tweet of his own, stating that this information was in fact false. Subsequently, Piastri signed with
Mclaren, adding to the controversy by replacing fellow Aussie and fan favourite Daniel Ricciardo,
leaving Ricciardo without a seat.
The start of the season saw further challenges arise for Piastri, and his teammate Lando Norris, with
the team suffering at the hands of pre-season rule changes, leaving the MCL60 less than ready to
race.
In his debut weekend, Piastri qualified P18 and DNF’d during the race due to electrical faults. The
following race weekend showed slight improvements, qualifying P9 and finishing P15, placing him
ahead of his more experienced teammate.
At his home grand prix, Piastri finished P8 despite two red flags and a botched restart, scoring his
first points. This was an early sign of the great things yet to come, and he would go on to almost
break a 17-year-old record held by Lewis Hamilton, for most points scored in a rookie season.
Silverstone was where the season really began to improve for Mclaren, with Norris and Piastri
qualifying P2 and P3, finishing the race in P2 and P4. Following this, at the famous Spa-
Francorchamps circuit, Piastri got his first taste of a top 3 finish, claiming P3 in the sprint.
However, it was Suzuka where he achieved his first grand prix podium, finishing the race in P3. After
qualifying on the front row, Piastri put up a great fight across all 53 laps of a chaotic race, and was
also voted driver of the day, taking a staggering 25% of the votes. Despite this result Piastri was
disappointed, stating it wasn’t his “best race ever”.
Undoubtedly the best weekend of the season for Piastri was Qatar. After a series of late lap time
deletions, he was dropped down the qualifying order to P6 while still mid-interview. However, he
found more success in the sprint shootout, where he earnt his first pole position in F1 and later went
on to claim victory in the sprint race. Alongside Carlos Sainz, Piastri is one of only two non-Redbull
drivers to take victory in a race this season.
This momentum carried through to the Sunday, powering Piastri through intense race conditions,
which even more experienced drivers expressed issues with. Charles Leclerc stated “Physically, it
was the toughest race of my career.” Some drivers were also reported to have vomited in their
helmets and been close to passing out due to the extreme heat. Against the odds, Piastri finished P2,
one position ahead of his teammate.
Rounding off the season with points in the final 3 races, he finished P9 overall. Piatri’s rookie season
had many highs and lows, but he has demonstrated the potential of a future champion in the
making.
