Formula 1: Who is Australia’s next Daniel Ricciardo? Meet the young guns aiming to be our next stars
Who is our next Daniel Ricciardo? From a Mark Webber protege to the son of a former MotoGP gun, meet the next generation of hopefuls aiming to be our next international racing star.
Motorsport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Motorsport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo … who is Australia’s next Formula One star?
Four young Australian drivers are this year doing battle in the Formula 3 ranks on the step ladder to Formula One.
From a Mark Webber protege to the son of a former MotoGP gun, we meet the next generation of Australian hopefuls aiming to be our next international racing star.
OSCAR PIASTRI
19, MELBOURNE
PREMA RACING
If the support Oscar Piastri has already secured behind him is any guide, the Melbourne teenager is going places.
Piastri’s Formula One ambitions were given a turbocharge during the off-season when he joined the Renault Sport Academy, which aims to develop young racing talent with the view to one day putting them in an F1 seat.
But Piastri’s impressive connections don’t end there, with the 19-year-old racer also joining the management company of retired Australian Formula One star Mark Webber.
So far this year, Piastri has lived up to his credentials and leads the F3 championship after the opening two rounds at Austria’s Red Bull Ring, including a stunning debut win.
And he isn’t shy about his F1 ambitions.
“Obviously that’s what I’m trying to do with my life. I’ve pretty much set myself on a one-way path now with no way back,” Piastri said.
“I’m definitely trying to get there and obviously it’s going pretty well at the moment. To be Australia’s next F1 driver would certainly be a very cool thing to have next to my name.”
Watch the 2020 FIA Formula One World Championship™ on KAYO. Every practice, qualifying session and race LIVE. New to Kayo? Get your free trial now & start streaming instantly >
MORE FORMULA 1
RICCIARDO FEARS 2020 CHAMPION COULD BE TAINTED FOREVER
HOW BOTTAS KEPT HIS COOL TO CLAIM AUSTRIA TITLE
And he has found the support of one of Australian former F1 star Webber invaluable as he has made the progression to F3 this season.
“He’s been really helpful helping me analyse my race weekends and going through what went well and what could go better,” Piastri said.
“He has been there before so he definitely knows what he is talking about. It’s been really good to have him on board and hopefully his advice keeps doing wonders.”
Webber has seen the potential in Piastri, describing him as “tenacious when he has got the helmet on” when he signed him to his management stable.
Piastri had also been hoping to build up a rapport with Australian Daniel Ricciardo through his Renault links before the announcement of his move to McLaren, but was more than happy for a message of encouragement after his first race win.
“Obviously now that he’s leaving Renault, the Australian connection that we were hoping was going to be built probably isn’t Renault’s priority anymore, which is a shame, but it is what it is,” Piastri said
“He sent me a message after the first race weekend, which was pretty cool. He just said ‘Well done and keep it up’, which is a bit of motivation. It’s always nice to get a message from an F1 driver, that’s for sure.”
Piastri earned his spot on the F3 grid with reigning champions Prema Racing — and a place in the Renault Academy — after dominating to win the Formula Renault Eurocup drivers’ championship last year.
“We’ve still got seven rounds to go, but it’s definitely been a good start,” Piastri said.
“It’s good to be fighting up the right end.”
ALEX PERONI
20, HOBART
CAMPOS RACING
Alex Peroni knows how lucky he is to be back on the Formula 3 grid.
Just 10 months ago, the Tasmanian was lying in a hospital bed with a fractured vertebrae after miraculously walking away from a frightening high-speed crash at Monza.
Peroni had to spend the next three months in a back brace recovering from the injuries he suffered after losing control of his car at 220km/h, becoming airborne and smashing into a safety barrier.
If the long physical recovery was not hard enough, Peroni’s support team also had the job ahead of them to raise the capital to get him back on the F3 grid after the costly accident, which was not fully covered by the team’s insurance.
But Peroni’s long road back was rewarded when he claimed a podium finish in his return race in the opening round in Austria earlier this month.
“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride to be honest,” Peroni said.
“The accident last year, going from maybe the fact that my career could be over to coming back with the same team and getting a pretty good podium has been pretty amazing.
“In those hard times, you always think of the worst scenario. But as soon as I knew I was going to make a full recovery … I was thinking about getting back.
“All our funding comes from supporters and sponsors and things like that, so we weren’t sure if they were going to come back but the support I got was amazing from everyone. So that really motivated me to get back going and come back to racing.”
But Peroni is not content with an amazing comeback story.
He knows now is the time he needs to strike and get results if he is to achieve his dream of climbing the ladder to Formula One.
“Honestly, this is the point of my career where I really need to start getting results up the front end to go forward,” said Peroni, eighth in the F3 standings ahead of the third round in Hungary.
“We are really close to Formula One, two steps below, and you only make it now if you are at the top. Obviously my great aim is Formula One and it’s awesome to get a podium, but we need to continue that momentum and get more and compete for the championship.”
Peroni has not had any lingering physical issues from the accident, nor did he encounter any psychological hurdles getting back into the race car.
“I never had any worry,” Peroni said.
“This is my passion. Crashing is a part of it, that’s something we have to accept. It was my first big crash though so it definitely was a shock. You never think it will happen to you until it does.
“I want to be known for getting podiums and winning and not that crash, but I never really cared. What do you expect? It was something that was bonkers to look at of course it’s going to get that reaction.”
JACK DOOHAN
17, GOLD COAST
HWA RACELAB
Racing is in Jack Doohan’s genes.
The son of MotoGP legend Mick Doohan, the teenager was racing about on two wheels from as early as he could remember.
But it was a birthday party accident when he was young that changed Doohan’s course from following in his famous dad’s footsteps on two wheels to pursuing a racing career on four.
“I was always two wheels from whenever I could remember really,” Doohan said.
“From the age of two or three years old I was on a dirt bike on two wheels. That’s all I wanted to do at that point … basically I wanted to be a Supercross rider.
“But then, I think it was at my fifth birthday … I had a few mates around on dirt bikes and I ended up gliding one of them and breaking my leg quite badly.
“That kind of shelved the bike for a while. Dad wasn’t too keen seeing me with a broken leg so young.
“So I disappeared from the bike for a while and went to push bikes, like BMX track riding for a couple of years. Then one of my buddies who is now in V8s, Zane Goddard, was going around in a go-kart and at that stage you just really wanted to be doing what your mates were doing.
“I always had a kart at home, but I was never as serious as what I was with bikes, but got into it from there and just went forward with it.”
Since then, Doohan hasn’t looked back. A member of the Red Bull junior team, he has made the leap to the FIA Formula 3 series after finishing second in the 2019-20 F3 Asian championship.
Still not old enough to get his license to drive a car on Australian roads, Doohan has based himself overseas since the age of 13 chasing his racing ambitions.
While he admits it has been a testing start to the F3 season, Doohan remains steadfast in his determination to one day make it to the F1 grid.
“Until that is defined as unachievable, I will just keep on going until I can’t get there … hopefully I won’t get to that stage,” Doohan said.
“It would be everything … I left home when I was 13 to do homeschooling over in Europe. It’s all a part of the sacrifice, but I just think it would be the end result of making sure it was all worth it, giving up your childhood.”
Along with his dad, Doohan names Michael Schumacher as his racing hero and is close with the German great’s son, Mick, who races in F2.
While his dad was a five-time 500cc world champion, Doohan is happy with his decision he made to pursue a career racing cars instead.
“I’m definitely thankful of my choice when I see some of his races, usually the ones he didn’t win were because he was sliding along the tarmac and into the gravel,” Doohan said.
“So, I’m quite happy on the path that I chose. I’m not as crazy as he was to be able to do that. Going over 300km/h in a car, I can do that, but on a bike it’s a whole different breed.”
CALAN WILLIAMS
20, PERTH
JENZER MOTORSPORT
As a young driver from Perth, there are no surprises which F1 star Calan Williams is striving to emulate on — and off — the racetrack.
“It’s 100 per cent Danny Ricciardo,” Williams said.
“The homegrown hero from Perth, he is certainly someone to look up to.
“Not only is he from Perth, being my home town as well, he’s also got an incredible personality and incredible mindset, which is something you have to look up to.”
Williams, in his debut season in the FIA F3 series, met with Ricciardo at home last year and extracted plenty of useful advice about what racing at the top takes.
“I’ve met him a couple of times. My father and myself and (Ricciardo) and his father went for a coffee and a chat while in Perth,” Williams said.
“He had some interesting advice to give me and that’s something I’ve carried forward until now and it was a great opportunity.
“He was explaining the way that he approaches everything, the way he thinks about things and it put a lot of things into perspective that seemed obvious … it was really enlightening.”
Williams has been racing in Europe since 2018, in the UK for the first two years, but now mostly based in Switzerland.
MORE MOTORSPORT
WEBBER: RICCIARDO ‘DODGED BULLET’ WITH FERRARI
BITTER DANIEL RICCIARDO DEMANDS ANSWERS
F1 STAR’S SWITCH TRIGGERS CONTRACT CHAOS
He admitted the move to F3 had been a step-up in competition, but it’s a taste that has made him even hungrier to push further up the ladder.
“It’s certainly a step up because not only is the field 30 cars, the largest field I’ve ever raced in, but everyone is also incredibly competitive,” Williams said.
“But it’s a challenge to tackle head on. The goal for everyone on the grid in F3 and F2 and any series below that, is F1.
“A lot of people are hungry to get to F1, but to be in this series now where there is only one more step up after this before F1 is certainly a good feeling.”