Oscar Piastri admits that his first season has been a roller coaster ride

Oscar Piastri had a very good season as a rookie. The Australian arrived to replace Daniel Ricciardo alongside Lando Norris. While McLaren was not performing well at the beginning of the season, the employees of the Woking team also had to adapt to their new boss Andrea Stella, deputy to Andreas Seidl, who left to take the helm at Sauber. In addition to this complicated context, Oscar Piastri arrived following a contractual confusion with Alpine.

Not easy for the F2 champion of 2021, who showed great performance and finishes in 9th position in the driver’s ranking.

A season with a dual meaning

McLaren had a very difficult start in 2023. The team did not display encouraging performances, and the engineers even admitted to making mistakes in the development. In the first part of the season, both drivers struggled to perform. However, Oscar Piastri did not let himself be outshone by Lando Norris and managed to level up.

The second part of the season was much better, countering the poor start to the year. The development of the MCL60 was very good, and the car could be optimized to the maximum. Thanks to this, Oscar Piastri managed to secure a sprint victory in Qatar and collect valuable points in the driver’s standings. « It has definitely been a bigger rollercoaster than I expected », said the McLaren driver. « I knew there would be ups and downs, maybe not as low in the beginning or as high in the end! But I’ve really learned a lot. I feel like I’ve experienced practically every possible situation, except for a championship battle. »

If this context hasn’t been very favorable for a smooth acclimatization, Oscar Piastri is convinced that it has strengthened him. Therefore, it has been a good year in terms of learning, he added. I think as a team, we are relearning how to compete at the front, which is exciting. It’s not a position we have been in for 10 years, so it’s nice to have these conversations again, to relive these scenarios.

A lot of gratitude towards McLaren

Oscar Piastri praised his team for the opportunity given. “It’s truly a privilege to race so early in my career,” explained the 2021 Formula champion. “There are people who spend their entire F1 careers without the opportunity I had in 22 races. So I am very, very grateful for that. And I look forward to many more years to come where, hopefully, we can do it more often (…). So I have to give them a lot of credit.”

His success in Qatar remains his best memory of the season. While he didn’t win any Grand Prix this year, he managed to leave with a victory in a sprint race and disrupt Max Verstappen. « In Qatar, we had an opportunity to win something and we managed to do it », exclaimed the Australian. « I can be very proud of myself for that. Of course, there were tougher weekends and still things to work on throughout the season. You don’t win championships with just two good weekends. I know that from my junior career, so I just need to make sure it happens more often. »

McLaren finished 4th in the championship, just behind Ferrari, with a total of 302 points.