Yahoo Autos Oscar Piastri's Future Is Wide Open
This time last year, Oscar Piastri was in an awkward place. After winning the 2021 Formula 2 championship with Alpine, he found himself with no path to replace either Fernando Alonso or Esteban Ocon at the senior team for 2022 and spent the year as a reserve driver. Then, two major developments in a row: just as Alonso decided to leave Alpine for Aston Martin, McLaren decided to move on from Daniel Ricciardo. Both teams saw Piastri as the clear best driver on the entire market, well before his first career Formula 1 race. In August, both teams separately claimed that he would drive for them.
This is the twelfth installment of our driver-by-driver preview of the 2023 Formula 1 season. This weekend, we will be covering McLaren. You can find the rest of our previews here.
After a month in front of Formula 1's Contract Recognition Board, McLaren won Piastri's services. Alpine went on to sign Pierre Gasly, and McLaren went on to lose an eerily similar case in IndyCar for the rights to 2021 series champion Alex Palou. As for Piastri, those concerns are behind him and he can now turn his full attention to preparing to make his Formula 1 debut.
HOW HE GOT HERE
Piastri moved into cars in late 2016, racing in regional Formula 4 and Formula Renault for three seasons. After winning the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019, he moved to FIA Formula 3 and won a championship in his first attempt. In 2021, he repeated the feat by winning the Formula 2 championship in his first attempt. Those two accomplishments make him by far the most exciting prospect to go through the Formula 2 development ladder in years. His resume compares favorably to Mercedes star George Russell and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris. The 2022 Formula 2 field was notably weak, with champion Felipe Drugovich missing out on an F1 ride entirely. In other words, Oscar Piastri is the most exciting Formula 1 prospect in the world right now.
