‘Dreams become your goals’ – Oscar Piastri says he can be F1 world champion this year
Oscar Piastri has a burning desire to win the World Drivers’ Championship ... this year.
We know the name of Oscar Piastri. Do we really know the bloke? Come on, cherubic young fellow. Introduce thyself.
“I’m an incredibly normal person,” Piastri says in an exclusive interview with The Australian before he lights up next week’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. “You’re nodding, so you obviously agree! I would say I’m just a very regular guy who’s just working very hard to try to achieve what he wants to achieve in his life.
“I know my job and what I do isn’t normal but I like to think that outside of being a Formula 1 driver, I’m nothing out of the ordinary. You’re still nodding.”
But not nodding off. “Who am I? I’m someone who likes spending time at home. I like seeing my girlfriend. I like seeing my family and friends when I can but unfortunately with this lifestyle, those chances are few and far between. When I’m not racing – well, I love racing, so when I’m not racing I keep racing on my own race simulator. I play video games every now and then and that’s pretty much it. There’s your introduction. I really do think I’m a very normal guy.”
WWW
Of all the next big things in the mega-rich, mega-prestigious, mega-popular world of Formula 1, Piastri may be the biggest of the lot. The 23-year-old Melburnian has finished ninth and fourth in the drivers’ championships in his first two seasons at McLaren. I’m intrigued to meet him. His handshake is polite and firm. He has a lovely demeanour. He doesn’t ooze the rock-star charisma of Formula 1’s most legendarily larger-than-life figures – Juan Manuel Fangio, James Hunt, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen – and yet he carries a rather enchanting presence. A little bit choirboy and a little bit stone-cold killer. The eye contact is constant and dazzling. The conversation is cheerful and engaging. There’s zero arrogance and yet a quiet, palpable confidence. The more he speaks, the more I want him to.
Intriguing it is. He won’t get a moment’s peace at Albert Park next week. Oscar, sign this! Oscar, can I have a selfie? Oscar, can I have your hat? Oscar, may I have your baby? Oscar, Oscar, Oscar! “I know it’s not just another race,” he says. “It’s my home grand prix. There’s a lot on. There’s sponsor commitments and the media and quite a big workload that needs to be carefully managed. All I’ll be really waiting for is when I’m starting the car right before the race, when I’m nervous, when I’m excited, depending on where I’ve qualified and how I think the race is going to go. That’s your moment. That’s why you’re here. To get in an unbelievably fast car and race the other fastest cars in the world.”
Australia hasn’t saluted a home GP champion since Alan Jones swung his Williams around Calder Park Raceway in 1980. It’ll be bigger than big if Piastri gets up. It’ll be Ash Barty winning the Australian Open … Winx winning her final race at Royal Randwick … Steve Waugh hitting a final-ball hundred at the SCG … John Aloisi penalty-kicking the Socceroos into the World Cup.
“I’ll admit I’ve imagined over the years how it might feel to win,” Piastri says. “I try to not think about it as much now. You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself or even tempt fate, I guess. Definitely before I got into Formula 1, I thought about how cool it would be on the top step, or anywhere on the podium, at home. It’d be special. I appreciate the support I get from people, I really do, and would love to pay it back with a great result. But I don’t let myself think about it any more deeply. That’s how desperation sneaks in.”
He squints. “I need to focus on the present,” he says. “I need to concentrate on what I’m doing in each moment. I can’t sit here and deny it would be incredibly meaningful to win in Melbourne and that I will try my best to achieve it. But there’s so many variables and uncertainties at the start of a year.
“The first thing to find out is, do we have a car that is strong? That’s the thing with Melbourne. It’s the first race and you never quite know what the car is going to be like. That makes it hard to set your expectations. We’re still finding out what we’ve got as a car, we’re finding out what the competition has – you never really know where you stand until the first qualifying of the year.”
Now he’s nodding. Yet for all the vagaries of a season-opening race, Piastri’s clearly in it to win it. He won last year’s Hungarian and Azerbaijan grands prix. He was part of the one-two punch, alongside Lando Norris, that landed the constructors’ championship for McLaren. We know his dream to win world titles. “Definitely,” he deadpans. The surprise is when he thinks it can happen: this season.
“Dreams become your goals,” he says.
Eh?
“Dreams become your goals,” he says. “Like, my first dream was to reach Formula 1. I’m very proud to have already ticked that box. The next dream is 100 per cent to become a world champion. We achieved it as a team last year but I’m a driver and I want the driver’s championship. I wouldn’t even say it’s a dream any more. A dream makes something sound far-fetched and almost unattainable. It’s closer than that. Now I’d describe it as a goal. We’re hopefully in a position where it’s achievable this season and for many more seasons to come.”
Multiple world championships. That’s the real goal. Definitely. “It’s special to have a dream of becoming an F1 driver turn into a goal – and then to realise that goal,” he says. “Now to have a dream of becoming world champion turn into my next goal – I’d like to think it’s another goal I’m capable of achieving. That is what I would like. It’s why I’m here. It’s why we’re all here. To win races, and if you win enough races, you win the world championship. That used to be a dream but I think it’s become a realistic goal.”
He adds: “If we turn up for the first part of the season and we don’t have a car that’s capable of fighting for it, we may need to readjust our ambitions. But I’m certainly expecting to challenge this year for the championship. I think it would be naive and silly for me to prepare for anything less. I definitely think it can be done.”
Piastri earned $35m last year from his McLaren salary ($8m) and bonuses ($27m). He probably grabbed a free coffee or two. It pays to be good at F1, to be driving these wheels of fortune, and I suggest there’s probably worse jobs to have in this world.
“The whole scene is definitely a lot of fun. People see the glamour and the glitz of it all, we’re travelling around the world, celebrities are walking on the grid and these things, but there’s a lot of hard work that goes into it,” he says.
“There’s pressure. You won’t be round for long if you don’t perform. Honestly, the most enjoyable part is doing what I dreamt of doing when I was a kid. Which was to drive race cars as a job. It seemed too be good to be true, but it’s become true.
“As drivers we’re so locked into our zone that we’re oblivious to a lot of the glamorous stuff. That’s how I feel, anyway. I just want to go racing. It’s a long and busy season and a lot of effort and …”
I still reckon there’s worse jobs. “I’m not arguing,” he says with a grin. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely a few perks to being in Formula 1. I love watching sport and I get to see a few events from better seats than I used to get, for instance. But the number one source of excitement and attraction for me, the biggest drawcard to being in Formula 1, is driving one of the world’s fastest cars and somehow being fortunate enough to call that a job. When things go well … it’s hard to actually put into words how it feels to win a race.”
Have a crack for us.
“Well, the beauty of it is that you experience different tracks, different cities, different countries, different conditions, different circumstances, different weather, different challenges and different scenarios that give every win a different context and feeling,” he says. “Like, the win I had at Azerbaijan last year was very hard-fought, high-pressure, I had to defend for a lot of the race. There’s been other wins in my career, before Formula 1, where it’s been more simple. You build up a decent gap. You don’t coast to the end but there’s not as much pressure from the cars behind you. There’s two completely different feelings.
“The one common thing is that all wins are unbelievably fun.”
From Melbourne, Monaco, Miami, Montreal, Monza and Mexico City to a few sparkling cities that don’t start with an M, Piastri, for McLaren, is embarking on a part-gruelling, part-whirlwind, nine-month, 24-race lap of the globe to become Australia’s first world champion since Jones (again) in 1980 (again). I’ll propose it one more time: there’s worse jobs. The hotel for our meeting, for instance, ain’t no dump.
“The glitz and glamour of Formula 1, I was never attracted to that,” Piastri says. “It was probably more glitzy and glamorous when I was watching it on TV 10 or 15 years ago. I was more interested in standing on the podium at Monaco, for example. I was in awe of how quick the cars were.
“The fastest cars in the world – it has such a magical ring to it. The fastest cars in the world – that’s the attraction of Formula 1 for me, as opposed to everything else attached to what we do. All I’m really interested in is racing and competing and trying to win.”
Since when? “Since I played a lot of sports as a kid. I was doing Little Athletics, playing Australian rules, I played cricket in my early teens. I was competitive at everything. Not just in sports. I was competitive in terms of trying to do my work the quickest and getting the best scores on tests in class. I guess it just naturally transferred into cars and racing. Then you start aiming higher and higher. You know, I’ve never had one specific person that I’ve aspired to be like but I always get asked, ‘Who’s your role model?’”
May I ask, cherubic young fellow, who’s your role model? “Good question!” he beams. “I look back through the years, and when I started racing, and started getting serious about racing, Lewis Hamilton was winning a lot of championships. It’s weird now to be racing against him. Watching his dominance, yes, there was the factor of him having a superior car, but there was also the factor of him getting the job done every week. Watching someone like that, or even watching Max Verstappen the last few years, and how he’s been able to constantly up his game, has been inspirational in some ways.”
Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, will race for Ferrari in Melbourne. Red Bull’s Verstappen is the four-time defending world champ. Beating Hamilton and Verstappen is Piastri’s dream and goal all rolled into one.
“You look at what Hamilton and Verstappen have done and try to transfer some of their qualities to yourself,” he says. “Then outside of racing, you get inspired by successful sportspeople and just successful people in general. I was born after Michael Jordan played but The Last Dance documentary was pretty eye-opening for me. Not just about his life, but about the sacrifices, hard work and commitment you need to make.
“Your dreams and goals aren’t going to come true just because you have them. You’ll only potentially realise them if you work incredibly hard for them. You have to be totally and completely dedicated to what you want to achieve in your life. Is that me? Is that who I am? It is.”
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout