When the lights go out and “away they go” at Albert Park on March 16, the eyes of the nation will instinctively turn to the orange and black car being driven by Oscar Piastri.

Regarded as Australia’s best Formula One prospect in nearly half a century, Piastri’s first job will be to plant his right foot on the accelerator pedal at the right moment, knowing his chances of taking the checkered flag at the end of the race could come down to how quickly and smoothly he gets away.

Born and bred in Melbourne, the pressure and expectation on the 23-year-old will be close to unbearable, but don’t fret, because he’s been preparing for this moment all his life.

Truth be told, he loves the adrenaline rush, but he just doesn’t like to let on.

“Calmness is certainly one of my strengths,” he says in an exclusive interview.

“It’s partly a personality trait and partly a conscious effort.

“Some people need a bit of red mist or a bit of aggression or whatever it might be to perform at their best …

“For the majority of situations, being calm and collected is the best way that I work in those high pressure situations.”

The burden on Piastri’s shoulders is sure to be intense because no Australian driver has ever won the Australian Grand Prix as part of the world championship, or even finished in the top three to earn a place on the podium, where the trophies get handed out and the champagne gets sprayed.

Piastri is the beacon of hope Australian motor racing fans have been longing for after Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo each won multiple races and finished as high as third in the world drivers’ championship. Named rookie of the year in 2023, Piastri is already tracking ahead of his two countrymen at the same stages of their careers, having won two Grand Prix races in 2024, in Hungary and Azerbaijan, and helping his McLaren team win the constructors’ championship for the first time in more than a quarter of a century.

Fearless and fast but with a cool head on his shoulders, a lot of experts are tipping him to be a future world champion, possibly as soon as 2025, but in a rare sit down chat at a plush apartment in Monte Carlo, he revealed how winning in Melbourne was his first priority.

“If there’s one race of the year that everyone wants to win, it’s their home race,” he says.

“There is definitely a bit of a different atmosphere to the weekend because it is a home race and there’s no point ignoring that.

“Obviously in the championship, it’s the same (number of points) as winning every other race, but from an emotional point of view of course, it’s going to feel extra special.”

If Piastri sounds relaxed, it’s because he is.

In a sport where drivers reach speeds of 350km/h in cars with 1000-horsepower turbo engines, the ability to stay composed and make split-second decisions isn’t just the difference between winning and losing.

It can also mean the difference between staying on the road and hitting the wall because there’s no getting away from the inherent dangers that come with being a Formula One driver.

“There are always the risks, of course. There’s been a few people that have been seriously injured or killed since I’ve been racing,” Piastri says.

“It’s always a pretty blunt reminder of the risks that there are in motorsport. Of course, they’re astronomically less than what they were 30, 40 years ago but there are still risks.

“We never really think about it. It’s only when those kinds of occasions happen where it is a bit close to home.

“Outside of racing, I probably wouldn’t be the first person to jump out of a plane. I’m certainly not sticking my hand up to go and do it. I’m not a big fan of sharks. Not a big fan of snakes. I’m OK with spiders because they’re small enough.”

Piastri opens up like never before on a wide range of topics, from how he deals with the fame and fortune that comes with being a member of the most exclusive club in all sports (there are just 20 drivers in F1 in 2025) to what it’s like to race against Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, what he does to stop his neck from snapping under the incredible
G-forces he encounters during races and his rivalry with his jovial McLaren teammate Lando Norris.

“I’m just really enjoying it,” he says.

“Yes, there’s a lot of hype and I guess expectation but I also quite like that. If you’re not getting spoken about in F1, it’s because there’s nothing really that exciting going on for you. So I think the fact that we’re at the front of F1 is a very, very cool place to be.

“It’s been something to get used to definitely, having people recognise you on the street or the supermarket or wherever it might be is a bit different to how I imagined life about five years ago, but it’s very cool and part of the territory.”

Accustomed to being feted like a rock star on race weekends at the 24 tracks he visits during the F1’s global calendar, Piastri spent his summer like most other Aussies his age, at home with his parents.

But there were some subtle, noticeable differences.

When he first left home as a 15-year-old, moving to Britain to try to work his way through the junior racing categories in Europe, he was a relative unknown.

Not any more.

In high demand as a celebrity, he was introduced to the Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd at the Boxing Day Test, then was a guest of honour in the VIP seats at the Australian Open centre court.

The hype will only intensify at Albert Park in two weeks, with the picturesque street circuit hosting the opening round of the 2025 season, even though many Australians who don’t follow Formula One do not know a whole lot about Piastri.

But if he wins the championship, everyone in Australia will know his name because Formula One champions automatically get thrust into a sphere of superstardom that is beyond imagination – alongside the likes of Tiger Woods, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Tom Brady, Roger Federer and Virat Kohli.

Of course, Australia has had countless athletes who have become worldwide names, including two Formula One world champions, Jack Brabham (1959, 1960, and 1966) and Alan Jones (1980).

But none have done it in the new age of technology, where Grand Prix races are watched by billions around the world, accentuated by digital television, smartphones and the wildly popular Netflix series Drive to Survive.

Preparing for just his third season in F1, Piastri is already rubbing shoulders with the greats of the sport, including Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, and Verstappen, who has won the last four world titles.

The fresh-faced Australian finished ninth in the drivers’ standings in 2023 then fourth last season but is improving so quickly that most experts think it is only a matter of time before he gets to the very top.

Their confidence in his ability is fuelled in no small part by his endearing maturity and level-headedness.

Fast tracked into F1 after winning the F3 and F2 championships when he was barely out of his teens, Piastri was initially looked at as polite, but somewhat dull.

Well mannered, he had made a conscious effort to earn the respect of the other drivers before revealing more of his character, which he has now done, showing himself to be a man of high intellect, a razor sharp wit and a classical dry Aussie sense of humour.

“In my second race, I lined up on the grid alongside Lewis and that was a bit of a pinch me moment because I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life pretty much seeing him win world championship after world championship,” Piastri says.

“And now here I am on my second weekend starting alongside him. Until that part sinks in, you feel a little bit, not like an impostor, but there’s a lot of other people that are there that have a lot more presence than you. But once you settle in a bit more, once you get those first six months out of the way, if they’ve gone, well, then you feel much more at home.”

A natural behind the wheel, Piastri always wanted to be a racing car driver after being introduced to go-karts when he was growing up in suburban Melbourne.

His father Chris was heavily involved in the automotive industry, founding a hugely successful engineering and software development company which enabled him to fund his son’s dream of being a F1 driver.

But it also required high sacrifices from everyone. To make it in the cutthroat world of open-wheel racing, drivers need to be racing in Europe when they are still kids themselves, which meant Piastri had to leave his family behind and relocate to England when he was an adolescent.

“Of course, it was a big decision to move to Europe, but I knew that I wanted to try and compete against the best,” he says.

“People like motorsport for different reasons.

“Some people like cars and then kind of like racing, some people like racing and then like cars. Some people just like racing or don’t like cars.

“I do like cars, don’t get me wrong, but I really enjoyed the competition.

“Once I got a taste of that, that’s what I knew I wanted to do. I was very aware from a young age that reaching F1 is very, very difficult and reaching F1 from Australia and staying there is impossible.

“So I knew that at some point I had to go to Europe if I wanted to try and achieve that dream and that was the right timing. Going to boarding school was actually, it sounds a bit weird, but probably one of the best decisions we made. I think it helped me focus on something outside of racing.

“I think it’s very easy in our sport, or in any sport, to overthink things.

“Just as a life rule, finishing school is always good, but it gave me something to focus on and going to boarding school meant that I kind of integrated into the community a lot more.

“So that was a very good thing. For me, it was actually quite a cool experience.”

It wasn’t all smooth sailing but after progressing through the lower categories and getting offered a seat in F1, he was shocked to discover the physical toll racing at the highest level had on his body.

Already lean and fit, he hit the gym for extra workouts.

“The G-forces are off the scale so your neck takes a massive beating,” he says.

“It’s obviously not a very conventional muscle to train. Physically it’s very, very difficult for people to understand what it’s like and the only way you can experience it is driving an F1 car.

“For me the step from F2 to F1, that was an eye-opening experience.”

As far his expectations go, Piastri has made no secret of the fact he wants to win the championship. And if his papaya coloured McLaren rocketship is a fraction faster than it was last season, he has a great chance of winning in car number 81, but therein lies his biggest challenge.

His main rival for the title could well end up being Norris. The pair get on famously but history shows that even the best friendships become strained when titles are on the line.

Piastri is aware of that and says he’ll just deal with it if that eventuates.

“We get on well,” he says.

“Our working relationship is very, very good. Even our relationship away from the track is good.

“It wasn’t that long ago that we were joking about fighting each other for one-twos. I think we joked that maybe our relationship would change when that happened, but we’re in that position now, which is pretty crazy to say, and our relationship is exactly the same.

“It’s game on for whoever can win the race. I don’t think it’ll change things. Of course we want to beat each other. That’s just how we are as people. Everyone wants to beat everyone in our sport. But we get on very well.

“If we keep the progression that we’ve got, then yes, there are going to be the highest of stakes on the table. But you don’t win a world championship just by saying, ‘I want to win the world championship.’”