Piastri's Formula 1 Triumphs Spark Red Bull's Interest in Young Talent
Sep.27 - As Oscar Piastri soared to his first front-row qualifying effort and podium at Suzuka, the superlatives are now flowing.
"It wasn't my best race ever," the new McLaren driver and rookie said after being beaten by his own teammate Lando Norris on Sunday. "But it was enough to get a trophy at the end."
It is clear that the 22-year-old is turning heads in the Formula 1 paddock and beyond.
"If I were a team owner, I think I'd get hold of the Australian kid," former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone told the Daily Mail newspaper. "He's very good."
Piastri, though, has now committed his future - at least until 2026 and the start of the new engine regulations - to the rapidly improving McLaren team.
He is managed by famous fellow Australian Mark Webber.
"I only knew I wasn't good enough to win championships when I met Oscar," Webber, the 47-year-old former Red Bull driver, told f1-insider.
"Despite all his talent, when it comes to his way of always wanting to get better and never resting on his laurels, he reminds me a lot of Michael Schumacher."
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella, meanwhile, said Piastri is also reminiscent of a young Fernando Alonso.
"I have to say he (Piastri) surprised me at Suzuka, especially on Saturday," Stella, who worked closely with both Schumacher and Alonso, said.
"This is not the first time he has performed well in qualifying, but this time it was at Suzuka, a very technical circuit where it is very difficult to string laps together."
Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher commented: "McLaren certainly has the best driver pairing for the future.
"Oscar is a super talent. It's hard enough to win Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships, but he did them in his first year. That is extraordinary.
"He is now doing the same thing in Formula 1. We are going to hear a lot about him," Michael Schumacher's younger brother added.
AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost is famous for always pointing out that rookie drivers in Formula 1 need at least three years to get up to speed.
"The performance Piastri is delivering in his first year is therefore all the greater," the Austrian now says.
Dutch F1 GP boss Jan Lammers, who raced in F1, thinks the way Piastri has performed might even inspire Red Bull to make a surprise driver decision for 2024.
"I think Red Bull is preparing to put (Liam) Lawson in the Red Bull," he told NOS. "They are probably inspired by what Oscar Piastri has done at McLaren.
"If a young boy like that can drive like a star, Red Bull has a good reason to think 'Why don't we just put Lawson next to Max (Verstappen)?'"
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Would be a mistake to put LAWSON in the RB against Max. He needs to be in Alpha Tauri first.
RIC wants to end up in the RB , which begs the question why did he leave in the first place , was he running away from a fight with Max or did he go for the big dollars.
If he thinks he would have a chance to beat Max in the immortal line from thd the Aus movie The Castle " tell him he's dreaming "
Ricciardo had his chance at RB but thought his talent would be better served at Renault. When that didn’t materialize, he went to McClaren. It appears that maybe his talent is not in F1. To go out on a limb, he would not have a snowball chance in hades against MV.
My thought on Piastri, he has a great potential for being an exceptional driver. Let him earn his spurs at McClaren then talk about going else where.
Oscar is managed by Mark Webber, and Mark certainly intimately knows F1 and Red Bull! He will steer Oscar in the right direction and ensure Oscar has the best chance to be WDC, an achievement that just eluded Webber in his time at RB.
Oscar Piastri is without doubt the brightest rising star on the grid at the moment. Provided he has the right machinery under him, he will surely be the next WDC from Oz! Good grief, the last WDC from Down Under was Alan Jones in 1980!
As for Liam Lawson, I look forward to see him battle with Oscar Piastri in the future, with Max and Lando also in the mix with them! The future is looking good for F1's future with more than one car being competitive, and more young guns striving to win.
And Webber takes no crap either, and LL was LS team mate in F2 2022 LS finishing 4th but he had 6 retirements and LL had 4 , beating LS to 3rd only by a point,I haven't tallied up how many of the LS retirements were down to him crashing/colliding but i think its a fair few