Oscar Piastri has turned out to be the Super Rookie through McLaren this year, even going ahead to win a Sprint race in his very first Formula 1 season. Oscar Piastri joined McLaren in 2023, replacing Daniel Ricciardo, under controversial circumstances. He was in a lawsuit with Alpine for contract allegations, which ultimately worked out in favor of Piastri.
Oscar Piastri certainly did not have the dream start to his season when his McLaren MCL60 suffered badly against competitors, regressing to the back of the grid. He did not hold back his talented performances once McLaren improved their pace post the summer break.
Oscar Piastri talks on his F1 rookie year
Oscar Piastri has fond memories from this year and he would definitely look back on his career to reminisce about his days as a McLaren rookie. McLaren, too, shares the same passion for his talents and the team boss can’t stop himself from praising Oscar.
Oscar Piastri has been through many different tracks this year and he has made a mark on almost all of them. Abu Dhabi is the last track that Oscar will be racing on this year but it is not a new playground for him. Oscar expressed his excitement at racing again in Abu Dhabi, remembering his days in junior categories: “I’m looking forward to returning to Abu Dhabi. I have some great memories of racing in the junior categories there and, of course, it’s where I did my first rookie test with McLaren last year.”
It was clear that Oscar did not hold back from mentioning the controversial McLaren test, which led to a lot of controversy about his contract and fondly remembered his first encounter with the ‘Papaya team’.
Oscar Piastri confident to end the year with strong performance
Oscar Piastri has enjoyed a lot of success this year and he believes in his ability to end the year on a high note with another strong performance at the Abu Dhabi GP. He further thought about his first season in Formula 1 and discussed how fast it went, making Oscar nostalgic about his 2023 season.
“My first season in Formula 1 has gone by in a flash. I have enjoyed it immensely, learnt a huge amount and can’t quite believe that Year 1 is almost done.” Oscar Piastri demonstrated a strong race pace and performance during the Las Vegas race, going from P18 to P10 and even fighting for a podium amidst the race. He was happy about the car’s pace in Las Vegas and believed that the Abu Dhabi GP was going to be a good track for ending the season with another great result.
“I think we knew we had reasonable pace yesterday. I think today was arguably a little bit better pace than what we expected. But yeah, it was just a shame yesterday that we kind of got caught out in qualifying and made life a little bit more difficult.”
“Nice to know that the car pace is still good in the race, on a circuit like this that we knew wasn’t really going to suit us very well, and yeah, hopefully Abu Dhabi we can finish the year off strong.”
Oscar Piastri has had the best season so far out of the recent F1 rookies and his time at McLaren has proved his caliber to end up a world champion someday. Do you think Piastri will achieve this dream with McLaren? Tell us what you think in the comments section.
