Bizarre career U-turn that almost delivered Formula 1 rising star Oscar Piastri to Supercars

Formula 1 star on the rise Oscar Piastri had his fate sealed in a sliding doors moment which could’ve seen his career shoot down a very different path and onto the starting grid at Mount Panorama this weekend.

Before tackling the streets of Monaco and Las Vegas, first there was Bathurst’s Mount Panorama in his visor.

That was Oscar Piastri’s original plan before his career took an unexpected U-turn and he landed himself a prime seat in Formula One.

One of the hottest talents in motor racing, Piastri has been a global sensation since he joined the F1 circus last season. He underlined his enormous talent by winning two races this year to steer his McLaren team to the top of the constructor’s championship.

If his growing army of admirers are right, and they include some of the biggest legends in the sport, Piastri is a future world champion in waiting, already on the road to joining Jack Brabham and Alan Jones as the only Australians to claim the greatest prize in motorsport.

But while it’s well known that Piastri left Melbourne when he was a teenager to move to Europe and follow his dreams of being a racing car driver, few people are aware that his initial plan was to return home and compete in Supercars.

While he always harboured ambitions of getting into F1, he also knew the odds of getting a start on the grid were slim so his first goal was to make it into Supercars.

Oscar Piastri has had a break out season with McLarem. Picture: Getty Images

Piastri was already a big fan of V8 touring car racing, especially the Bathurst 1000, so hoped he might attract the attention of Supercar team owners if he did all right in Europe.

He did just that but went way better than he or anyone else expected, winning the Formula Renault championship then the Formula Three and Formula Two titles in succession, so his plans took a sharp detour.

“When I went to Europe, my first goal in motorsport was to become a professional, to be paid to drive race cars,” he told this masthead during a rare interview in Monte Carlo.

What could have been for Oscar Piastri. Picture: Getty Images

“In blunt terms, I didn’t really mind what car it was. I would, of course, set my sights on F1 if I could, but my first goal was to just be a professional in motorsport, whether that was in GT cars or whatever in Europe or in Supercars in Australia.

“So I kind of knew that going to Europe, once I got to a certain point, I kind of knew that even if I don’t reach F1 here, I’ve made a bit of a name for myself in some of the junior categories so there will be opportunities elsewhere.

“So that was kind of always a bit of a let’s say back-up plan to go back to Australia if it didn’t work out. But once I kind of got on a roll, of course F1, the sky was the limit really.”

With the benefit of hindsight, it looks like everything went smoothly for Piastri, but that was not the case.

The year before winning the Formula Renault crown in 2019, he struggled to make any inroads in the category after being signed by Arden, a development team created by Red Bull principal Christian Horner, raising doubts in his own mind whether he was squandering his chance of ever making it in single-seat racing.

How well do you think he would have gone in Supercars? Picture: Getty Images

“There was probably one season in Formula Renault, my first in 2018, where it was a tough season,” he said.

“There wasn’t many trophies that year. I had to do some school exams. So it was a pretty busy year outside of racing.

“And just compared to my standards and what I wanted of myself, it just wasn’t quite as good as I wanted. I never really questioned whether I would stay in Europe, but certainly it’s kind of ‘I can’t really afford to keep having this’ because the opportunity dies very quickly.”

Oscar Piastri says he has no regrets over his decision. Picture: AFP

Red Bull passed up the chance to sign Piastri – a decision Horner has said he deeply regrets – but the move was the sliding doors moment that took the Australian to F1 as he switched to the R-ace GP team and won the championship title the next year.

It meant his plan to drive Supercars at Bathurst would have to be put on hold but the 23-year-old says he has no regrets about the fork on the road he took.

“Once I kind of got a taste of racing in Europe and racing against the best guys in the world, on the best tracks in the world, for me that was what I wanted to do after that point,” he said.

“It was, of course, a big decision to move to Europe, but I knew that I wanted to try and compete against the best.

“A lot of 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.

“And I think for me, I do like cars, don’t get me wrong. But I really enjoyed the competition. I was in competition with others and in competition with myself of trying to do better.

“I always played other sports before I went racing and I just loved the competition of it rather than maybe necessarily specifically the sport. So for me, once I got a taste of that, that’s what I knew I wanted to do.”

Originally published as Bizarre career U-turn that almost delivered Formula 1 rising star Oscar Piastri to Supercars