It’s a special weekend for McLaren’s Australian driver Oscar Piastri as he races in his home country and in the city where he is from in F1 for the first time. The former Formula 2 and Formula 3 champion was P12 and P14 in the two practice sessions on Friday as rain arrived during the second session of the day.
Understandably there is a lot of attention on Piastri throughout the 4-day event, but McLaren CEO Zak Brown has been impressed by how his young driver is dealing with everything.
“He’s doing very well. He’s a very mature 21-year-old, very focused. You kind of wouldn’t know it’s his home Grand Prix from his perspective,” stated Brown. “You can clearly tell around the track that there’s an Oscar-mania if you like, but he’s very focused, head down.
“You can’t really tell the difference between him here or Saudi or Bahrain and I think that’s what’s going to make him a really good Grand Prix driver, his focus and his calmness.”
In spite of having a car that is languishing somewhere near the second half of the grid on the evidence of the first couple of events, Piastri has already shown signs of his great talent as he put in a brilliant qualifying performance in Saudi Arabia to make Q3 in only his second ever F1 appearance. An unfortunate light touch with Pierre Gasly at the start of the race ruined his chances for a first points finish in Grand Prix racing.
Brown believes Piastri is showing all the signs that he can match highly-rated teammate Lando Norris this year, unlike Daniel Ricciardo who could never fully get to grips with McLaren machinery in 2021 and 2022 despite his win at the Italian Grand Prix nearly two years ago.
“I think early indications are that Oscar will be on the same pace as Lando and the two of them will push each other hard,” said the American. “And that’s what you want out of your two drivers, to know that it’s kind of down to you, as a team, to provide them with a car to get to the front.
“So I’m confident when you look down the list of things you need to have a winning team, having two Grand Prix drivers is critically important and I think we’ve got that.”
Photo: McLaren Racing
