The promising young Australian’s debut Formula 1 season has concluded. After a rough start, how did Oscar Piastri fare?
For a magnitude of reasons, Piastri arrived onto the grid with enormous fanfare.
An illustrious junior driving career generated firm excitement; he arrived after FIA Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships in consecutive seasons.
The latter, which included four wins and five poles in eight races, saw the Melburnian join an exclusive group of drivers, including current Formula 1 stars George Russell and Charles Leclerc, to win the F3 and F2 titles in consecutive seasons.
Before he’d even fastened a Formula 1 seatbelt, an intense, borderline-humorous legal tussle for his signature played out. Alpine, the team Piastri drove for throughout the majority of his junior career, expected him to fill the seat vacated by Fernando Alonso at the end of the 2022 season.
But the Australian, and McLaren, had other ideas. In a move that shocked the motorsport world, Piastri was brought in to replace fellow Australian, Daniel Ricciardo, in the famous team who, despite a patchy 2022, now boasted one of F1’s most talented driving duos.
Just how good was Oscar Piastri’s rookie season?
In a season dominated by Red Bull’s record-breaking Max Verstappen, who won 86 per cent of the season’s races – including 10 consecutive mid-season victories – on his way to a third World Driver’s Championship, it was always going to be a near-impossible effort for Piastri to emulate his junior driving success in the big league.
Despite this, he still performed exceptionally well for a rookie.
His final points tally of 97 is the second-most ever recorded by a rookie.
The greatest point scoring rookie season? Seven-time world champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton.
The Englishman’s 2007 debut season, driving for McLaren, saw him rack up 109 points as he finished runner-up in the championship standings by a single point.
Not bad company for Piastri.
Hamilton sat on pole in six races, recorded four race victories, and finished on the podium in another eight during his debut season. For Piastri, there were no victories or poles… but two fastest laps, a second-place finish in Qatar and a third-place effort in Japan.
While his return doesn’t compare to Hamilton’s rookie season, or indeed the likes of Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher, who fought tooth and nail for championship honours, Piastri undoubtedly embarked on one of the greatest rookie runs in recent history.
On top of his dual podiums, he recorded points in nine other race, driving beautifully with teammate Lando Norris, as McLaren finished fourth in the Constructors Championship standings.
2023 marked the Woking-based team’s equal-best finish since coming third in 2020. Although the team won more points (302) in 2023 than 2020 (202). In fact, Piastri’s debut coincided with McLaren recording their largest points total since 2012 (378).
This achievement came in an incredibly competitive field, featuring the indomitable Verstappen, his teammate Sergio Perez, former world champions Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, and a contingent of cars and drivers that were at one stage viewed as superior to Piastri and McLaren.
Further fuelling the brilliance of the season, Piastri’s results were reached in a car that only learned how to drive halfway through the season. The Aussie admitted it took significant upgrades in the build-up to the British Grand Prix to turn McLaren into a competitive side.
From Silverstone onward, he finished in the points in nine of the 13 races, with just under 80 per cent of his total season points coming in this stretch of races.
On top of mechanical improvements, the Aussie rookie also acknowledged his own personal growth as the 2023 season progressed. Race-by-race, Piastri said he began ‘getting more and more comfortable with the car, knowing how I need to drive it to be quick, just getting more experience in the races.’
Speaking on his experiences in his first Formula 1 season, Piastri commented on how competing against guys like Alonso and Hamilton, who he idolised growing up was ‘a little bit daunting.’
“But at the time it is pretty special to race against those guys and to be able to fight against them is a nice reassurance that they are not aliens,” he said.
He also described his debut season as ‘challenging’ — not that you’d know that, from watching along at home. The Aussie’s temperament oozes cool and his level-headed nature never seems to bobble, even in the face of significant adversity. So much so that Tom Stallard, the Australian’s race engineer, who’s worked with the likes of Jenson Button and Carlos Sainz Jr., described him as ‘calm and intense.’
There were plenty of moments in the 2023 Formula 1 season when the McLaren man looked every bit the driver everyone expected him to become when he rose through the junior racing ranks.
His performances even earned the praises of Australian F1 royalty; former Red Bull driver and Piastri’s agent, Mark Webber, stated that Piastri had a ‘phenomenal, phenomenal entry in his first year.’
That’s not to suggest there haven’t been hurdles along the way.
Piastri himself acknowledged the many learning curves from the year, including racing on unfamiliar tracks and increased off-track responsibilities.
“It’s not so much the difficulty of it, there’s a lot more of it,” he said.
What next for Oscar Piastri?
Moving forward, there is no doubt that Piastri’s Formula One career will be long. He recently signed a contract extension, keeping him at McLaren until 2026, highlighting his team’s confidence in him even after a single F1 season.
Alongside Lando Norris, McLaren now have a driving duo that, in the right machinery, could be fighting at the top of Formula 1. They showed as much during the 2023 season.
For Piastri, the results of his debut season, which have been overwhelmingly positive, only make up half the story. A crucial element of his first outings in an F1 car has been developing his confidence, as well as the wider team’s confidence in his ability, and laying the foundations for future success.
In the eyes of team principal, Andrea Stella, who’s spent decades around elite F1 talent, including as an engineer for Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, said that the sky’s the limit for Piastri.
“Drivers that have the potential to become world champion need to have a natural speed, which we saw straight away,” he said.
“Then they need to have the head, the capacity, the capability to use their talent, which Oscar establishes in an interesting way.
“He keeps his head very clean of disturbances.”
After an impressive and exciting debut season for Oscar Piastri, that can only be rivalled by a handful of drivers, Stella’s testimony is a clear indication that the Formula 1 world believes Piastri’s potential will inevitably lead him much higher up the standings.
