HE IS ONLY 24 YEARS OLD, born in Melbourne, where he grew up with a passion for cars and racing – starting out with remote-controlled cars. Since then, he has followed the traditional path FROM GO-KARTS THROUGH FORMULA 4, 3, 2, AND MOST RECENTLY IN HIS ORANGE MCLAREN MERCEDES FORMULA 1 CAR. After the first six Formula 1 races of the 2025 season, OSCAR PIASTRI has positioned himself AT THE FRONT IN THE BATTLE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP.
The heir apparent
The final Formula 1 Grand Prix of the year will take place on December 7th in Abu Dhabi. And if things go as the McLaren Mercedes team hopes, the season will end with a double triumph for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. If the start of this year’s Formula 1 races continues as expected, there will be a new man at the top of the podium: Oscar Piastri. After the first six Grand Prix races this year, he held four wins and 161 points, just a hair ahead of Norris in the championship battle.
In any case, Oscar Piastri is the obvious heir apparent. And if it doesn’t happen this year, he is predicted to have strong chances of becoming the next historic name following drivers like Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, and Lewis Hamilton.
Journey to the Top
It’s quite a journey that the just 24-year-old Australian has been on, now standing on the threshold of a star-studded career in the king class of motorsport. Just securing a permanent seat in a McLaren Mercedes car is quite an achievement. Around the world, thousands of drivers fight for just the chance to be near the 20 seats in Formula 1.
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And once you’ve won that spot, you’re just one driver competing to beat the other 19. If you manage to do that - and repeat it season after season - there’s a chance people will remember who you are. That is the journey Oscar Piastri has just begun.
Perhaps it’s a bit of an exaggeration to say he’s only just started. Like so many other top drivers, he’s been on the path to Formula 1 since childhood. A childhood marked by engines, petrol, and racing. His father was an engineer who worked on tuning cars and creating diagnostic software tools.
Oscar himself was fascinated by remote-controlled cars and competed in many championships, where his calm and measured driving often brought him to the top of the podium. Later, it was go-karts that set him on the path toward a career in motorsport. But his family knew that if he was to make his dream of Formula 1 a reality, he would have to take the big leap: to Europe.
Alone in England
At the age of 14, he therefore traveled to England on a scholarship and enrolled at Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertfordshire, just north of London. With sponsorship from his father’s company, HP Tuners, he started as a Formula 4 driver already the following year, finishing sixth overall in his first season as a racing driver.
“I obviously wanted to get to F1, but I don’t know if I ever fully believed it was possible,” he said last year in an interview with The Gentleman’s Journal. But he made it.
“Even when I was karting and driving in Formula 4, I knew the chances of reaching F1 were so slim, and I always tried to stay realistic. My main goal was to become a professional racing driver and get paid to race cars.” There was no doubt about his talent. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has openly admitted some disappointment that he didn’t manage to sign Piastri as a junior driver back in 2017 when he was still racing in Formula 4.
After two podium finishes in Formula 4, more success soon followed. Piastri climbed the motorsport ladder with a Formula Renault championship title in 2019, an F3 championship in 2020, and an F2 championship in 2021, which he won by more than 50 points ahead of his closest rival.
While most of us were feverishly trying to master homemade sourdough bread and Zoom calls during COVID-19, Oscar Piastri was beating competitors on the race tracks and storming his way into contention for a Formula 1 seat.
“I did everything I could to try to get into Formula 1, but it was a dream, not a goal.” But with promotion to Formula 2, the dream came one step closer.
Signed contract in a parking lot
But it wasn’t without conflict that he finally signed a contract with the McLaren Mercedes team in 2023. Back in 2020, Piastri had been part of the Renault-Alpine academy. They gave him his first drive in a real Formula 1 car after he had won the F2 championship the year before. He was then promoted to first reserve driver. When the team’s first choice, Fernando Alonso, suddenly switched to Aston Martin, everyone expected Oscar Piastri to drive for the French team - Renault-Alpine as well. But they had miscalculated.
Instead, he signed a contract with McLaren Mercedes. This move sparked massive criticism on social media - especially because his fellow Australian, Daniel Ricciardo, was simultaneously fired.
“Signing my F1 contract was a very special thing. Even though there was quite a bit of controversy around it, it was still very, very special,” Piastri told The Gentleman’s Journal.
There was little glamour when he put his name on the contract. After all the drama, legal threats, and big headlines in the newspapers, he signed the deal securing his Formula 1 seat at a gas station parking lot on a British motorway. Of all places, it was here that Piastri made his dream come true.
“It was in a parking lot at a gas station in the UK, so it wasn’t the most glamorous place to sign an F1 contract, but it was still a very, very special feeling.”
On the Road to the World Championship Title
The much turmoil surrounding his final stage before his Formula 1 debut is otherwise not particularly characteristic of the young Australian. In fact, one of his nicknames among the other Formula 1 drivers is “The Monk.” He is known for having a calm and composed temperament. There is little glamour in the way he carries himself, unlike other newly wealthy sports stars who tend to adopt extravagant habits.
This calmness also shows in his driving style on the racetrack. Not that he can’t be ruthless in the chase for podium positions, but he has the ability to anticipate what will happen and maintains a good flow as he moves up through the field. In short, he is an intelligent driver who also manages to prevent competitors from overtaking him. He proved this last year at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
Starting from second position behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, after 20 laps of aggressive driving, he finally got the chance to overtake the Frenchman. He kept him behind for the next 31 laps, crossing the finish line as the winner. Earlier in the year, he had won the Hungarian Grand Prix and finished the season in fourth place.
With four wins in this year’s first eight Grands Prix, Oscar Piastri has played a major part in McLaren’s revival. For the past 25 years, the prestigious British team has struggled to get their cars up to speed. But with Piastri and Lando Norris, the situation has turned around. For the first time in many years, there is a real chance that McLaren Mercedes will have two drivers in the top three. Even before the summer break, the two had established themselves at the top alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Under normal circumstances, everyone on the McLaren team would support Oscar Piastri’s path to victory. But unlike other teams in the Formula 1 caravan, McLaren does not operate with a first and second driver. So, for Piastri to get to the top of the podium, he also needs to keep Lando Norris at bay.
But if Oscar Piastri maintains the level he showed in the last race, there’s a good chance that the heir to the throne will claim it. He is, at any rate, the clear favorite among bookmakers.