Vroom vroom!
Melbourne legend Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Driver, is now currently leading the World Drivers Championship in the Formula 1 since last weekends race in Saudi Arabia. Piastri’s partner at McLaren currently holds the second place spot and last year’s champion Max Verstappen (Redbull) trails in third.
This is the first time an Australian driver has held the lead of World Drivers Champion since Mark Webber in 2010, whom is currently Piastri’s manager.
The Webber and Piastri partnership has shown to be a successful pairing, as previously Piastri was a reserve driver for F1 team, Alpine, Webber convinced Piastri to take an offer from McLaren (where he now races). This offer meant that young Rookie Oscar Piastri took Aussie F1 legend Daniel Riccardo’s seat, who now no longer races in Formula 1 – (Danny please call we miss you).
With McLaren’s rise through the Constructors Championship, Piastri won his first Sprint race in Qatar in 2023 (his second season), winning a race before his far more experienced partner, Lando Norris who’s been with McLaren since 2019. After a tumultuous starts to the 2024 season, with many McLaren team orders favouring Norris, Piastri won his first Grand Prix in Hungary last year. This win streak has continued as he now has five wins to his name, including two back to back races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia during the first triple header earlier this year.
With McLaren’s success in last years Constructors Championship, narrowly beating Ferrari, it seems that the upward momentum of Oscar Piastri’s career won’t be hitting the breaks and we don’t want it to. Could Oscar Piastri be the first Australian to win the World Drivers Championship since Alan Jones in 1980? Guess we’ll find out in December!
