The Wheels Interview: Aussie F1 Sensation, Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri looks like a kid. In pictures with his girlfriend Lily Zneimer, they could be heading to their Year 10 formal.

Yet there is incredible maturity in Australia’s grand prix youngster. He has speed and commitment, with intelligence and inner steel to match. Piastri will be a genuine contender through the 24 stops on the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship tour, right from the get-go when the field for the Australian Grand Prix lines up just a couple of suburbs across from the Piastri family home in Brighton East.

“Fighting it out at the front. Winning. Another step up in level from last year,” Piastri tells Wheels in a pre-season chat about the year ahead.

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The 23-year-old proved his potential last year when he won his first Formula 1 races with the resurgent McLaren team and, for a time in the mid-season, out-scored everyone at the top end of grand prix racing.

Those second-season successes could have triggered wild, childish celebrations, but Piastri stayed calm and composed. He appeared more like French five-time world champion Alain Prost, who was nicknamed ‘The Professor’, than his emotional and mercurial countryman Daniel ‘The Shoey’ Ricciardo.

He is joined for the 2025 season by Jack Doohan, son of the legendary MotoGP champion Mick, as Australia maintains its two-driver contribution to the starting grid. New Zealander Liam Lawson will also be part of the pack, facing the giant challenge of racing as team-mate to the super-focused four-time champion ‘Mighty’ Max Verstappen at Red Bull.

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Doohan’s future at Alpine is not clear, with rumours swirling around the team’s Machiavellian boss Flavio Briatore, who guided both Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso to world titles but was punted out of F1 after a cheating scandal. Doohan has a multi-year contract but Briatore is impatient and ruthless.

Things are different for Piastri, who is rock-solid at McLaren alongside Lando Norris and would be a hot property if there was any chance of him defecting before the conclusion of his current contract at the end of 2026.

For anyone who has followed Piastri’s fledgling career, season 2024 was just the next step on an inexorable drive to the pinnacle of world motorsport.

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After early victories over adults in remote-controlled miniature race cars, it really began when 14-year-old Piastri moved to an elite boarding school in Britain – where he later met Lily – to pursue his grand prix dream.

He was a winner from the get-go in junior single-seater racing and, almost from the start, was tipped for greatness.

“He is one of the future champions of Formula One,” the then-head of Alpine F1, Laurent Rossi, told me after he signed Piastri as the French team’s reserve driver at the start of 2022.

Piastri proved Rossi was right as he rocketed through back-to-back title wins on the final two steps to grand prix grids, the FIA Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships. Anyone who can do that – including seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton – is very, very talented. But Piastri proved he was something special when he lifted both the F3 and F2 crowns in his rookie seasons.

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Now it’s 2025 and Piastri is a challenger for the Formula 1 world championship with McLaren.

“He got his first grand prix wins last year which are massive milestones and he’s ready to fight it out at the sharp end again,” says Mark Webber, the carbon fibre-tough Aussie who is using his own experience in F1 to guide the youngster. He will be at 18 or 19 races, taking care of business as “Oscar’s eyes and ears and representing his interests”.

Webber raced nose-to-nose with Fernando Alonso and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel as he got within one race of the world title in 2010, so he is ideally placed to help guide Piastri’s career and avoid the mistakes and mis-steps of his own time in F1.

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He proved his multi-million-dollar management expertise when he led Piastri away from Alpine to McLaren, after the papaya team had sacked the under-performing Ricciardo, in one of the smartest switches in recent F1 history. McLaren was the top-rated team in 2024, Alpine only sixth.

Webber would make an excellent poker player and some of his emotionally-controlled approach to F1 is reflected in Piastri, who often seems – apart from his baby face – much older than those 23 years.

“We’re very proud of how phenomenally well Oscar has performed in his first two years in F1. He’s shown fantastic progression, he’s proving himself in great fashion and he’s incredibly hungry for more,” says Webber.

“We know there’s still even more room for him to improve and that is very exciting.”

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Clearly, Webber is talking about a world title and says he saw the potential in the youngster when he was in Formula 3.

“His F2 year was extremely impressive. Many drivers do the last two races of the previous season to help their first year in F2 but Oscar did not have this luxury due to budget, and so went straight into round one as a genuine rookie in what proved to be a championship-winning season for him.”

Piastri is already more than just another F1 driver and showed he has become Australia’s newest sporting superstar when he was escorted onto the Melbourne Cricket Ground for a guest appearance during the Australia-versus-India test match series. He and Lily also got a special welcome at the Australian Open tennis.

Star treatment might be fun, but Piastri is not letting it blunt his laser-sharp focus on success. His goal is clear – to improve on his stellar 2024 season.

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Comparing Piastri with Australia’s two F1 champions, Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones, highlights the similarities and the differences.

Brabham was a gritty tradesman who ground out his three world titles with an engineer’s brain and the instincts of a speedway brawler who learned his craft on Sydney dirt tracks after World War II.

Jones showed flashes of brilliance on the track to Formula 1, then cashed-in his commitment – he rented rooms in his London home to make money for racing – when he got the ground-breaking Williams FW07 to punish his rivals.

Piastri can be as aggressive as Jones and as unflappable as Brabham, something he proved when he stole the lead from Charles Leclerc at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2024, before successfully defending first place to the chequered flag despite relentless attacks by the Ferrari star. He rates it as his favourite moment of the season.

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“It was a high-commitment move but it’s what won me that race,” he recalls. “After the pitstop, I knew I had one chance and had to take it. I wouldn’t really classify myself as the ‘just send it’ type, but I think my racecraft is pretty good. I’d say I’m pretty calculated, weighting up the risk-versus-reward and being consistent in all aspects of my racing.

“Thankfully, I pulled it off. It was a stressful afternoon from then onwards, but that moment stands out. It was certainly a very special victory for me.”

There were many other landmark moves as he polished his craft and learned to fight with the F1 pace-setters, including his team-mate Norris.

“I think my racecraft developed another level in 2024, especially in the middle part of the season. I was very happy with my performances and consistency,” he says.

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“I’ve still got learning and improving to do, but I feel like I developed a lot of important tools to compete at the top. Also, of course, strategically both the team and I had some sensational learnings which we’ll be deploying in 2025.”

His learning and improving coincided – was it a coincidence, or did Webber already know? – with McLaren racing back to the front of F1, scoring its first manufacturers’ world title since 1998.

“At the last race of 2024, the two McLarens locked out the front row of the grid in Abu Dhabi. With the same regulations going into 2025, we remain optimistic but never over-confident as we know in Formula 1 the margins are extremely tight, and we respect our opposition,” says Piastri.

“We need consistency at every circuit, exceptional reliability and be strong in all conditions.”

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McLaren says it has not gone conservative with its new car, the MCL39, instead pushing for the tiniest gains in every area. It’s the same for Piastri, as it has been since he left home and Australia nearly 10 years ago.

“Obviously, going into boarding school was a bit of a shock. Maybe not a shock, but not what I was used to. But I actually found it very positive away from the track as it gave me something to focus on.”

It also helped that Piastri was not just an ordinary student, just as Zneimer achieved super-high grades and a qualification in engineering.

“For me it was all pretty positive. I was pretty bright at school and I did maths, physics and science as my A-level (school leaving) subjects.

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“If I wasn’t a driver, I’d probably want to follow something along the engineering pathway. It’s always interested me and, even being a racing driver, knowing what set-up changes you can make is good.”

The common thread through the Piastri story is his dedication to the job, and the ability to deliver on promises. Even as a teenager.

“It mostly comes from me. I set the standard. You’ve got to be doing it for yourself more than anyone else,” he says.

But he also has McLaren and Webber, as well as another key member of Team Piastri, Ann Neal. She was Webber’s manager from his early days in Formula Ford and was alongside for his nine grand prix wins, then into his Le Mans sports car career with Porsche, eventually becoming his wife.

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Now her job is making life easier for Piastri.

“It’s full time. I’m extremely involved on a daily basis, co-ordinating and managing the support team and service providers around Oscar,” she says.

“It’s very different to when Mark was competing as the sport has become so huge. It’s a very rewarding project being involved in Oscar’s career.”

She believes Piastri has one great strength.

“His composure. Unflappability,” she says.

With so much at stake, and so much ahead, Piastri tells Wheels he has a bunch of learnings to roll into season 2025.

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“There are so many facets I’m continuing to build on,” he begins. “Generally, I think I showed pretty clear progress from my rookie year so it was a good improvement but there is still room to go. I think I made big strides forward with race tyre management last season which was pleasing. Of course, finishing every single racing lap was a pretty good bonus along the way as it’s not always easy to achieve.”

Taking a break from Formula 1, there is more to discover about Piastri. For a start, there is his taste in music.

“I’m actually into house music, which surprises most people. I like artists like Sammy Virji and Fisher and tend to have them on in the car or when I’m training.”

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And what makes him laugh?

“Alex Albon’s padel technique,” he says of a mini-tennis sport which has become popular with many of the drivers, including the Williams racer. But it doesn’t take long and we’re back to racing, and the start of the season at Albert Park.

“Being a Melbourne boy, it’s always a special race for me. But it’s even more special being the season opener this year. The support I receive there is incredible and it’s a great feeling to see all the Aussie fans in the grandstands. I’m really looking forward to it and hopefully I can start the first race of the season with a strong result on home soil.”

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He cannot hide the prime emotion leading into the AGP.

“Excitement,” Piastri says.

“After a few months away from racing, having a break and spending time with friends and family, I’m really looking forward to getting going again and seeing what I can achieve. Every year in Formula 1 is massive. I’m looking forward to my third year and, of course, I’ve never had more experience than now which gives me confidence.”

That confidence is reflected in his driving, but also the way he has coped with competing in a British team alongside Norris, who is a new British hero together with George Russell at Mercedes-AMG. While Norris can be moody and petulant, and complained over the McLaren radio when he thought Piastri was getting an advantage at times last year, the Australian has stayed calm and focused.

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Still, the inner steel is obvious when Piastri talks about his drive and ultimate ambition in Formula 1.

“I love the competition and enjoy being at the business end of the grid,” he says. “Being the pinnacle of motorsport, naturally this comes with plenty of responsibility which, of course, I’m aware of so it’s always a balance between enjoyment and the critical role I have with the team.

“Fighting for wins and championships has been my dream since I was a little kid and I’m determined to give it everything.”