Alex Albon Refuses to Be an ‘Astronaut for a Day’ With Oscar Piastri

In a recent interview, Williams driver Alex Albon was asked which profession, other than F1, he would choose for a day. Without hesitation, the Thai-born racer chose astronaut. However, despite his confidence in the answer, Albon later changed his mind — because of Oscar Piastri.

As soon as Albon revealed his choice, the presenter who had asked him the question announced that his answer “matches Oscar.” 

For Albon, that was a dealbreaker. As soon as he heard that, he was done with the thought of being an astronaut and replied, “I don’t want to be in a space shuttle with Oscar.”

Although there was no clear explanation behind Albon refusing to fly into space with Piastri, the Williams driver’s mood and tonality clearly said that it was just a joke. Albon carried on with, and changed his answer to being a zookeeper. “Like in a sanctuary. That would be nice,” the 28-year-old said.

This wasn’t the first banter exchange between Piastri and Albon, as not too long ago, they engaged in a battle over the title of ‘worst player’ at the F1 grid’s ‘second sport’.

Piastri confident of beating Albon

The entire F1 grid has unanimously chosen padel as their go-to second sport. During breaks between races, drivers often gather to play several rounds of the game, and it has even become a frequent topic of banter in various interviews.

On one such occasion, Albon called Piastri the worst Padel player in the paddock. It wasn’t long before Piastri posted a video of Albon goofing up a ball after a serve.

Case closed pic.twitter.com/s8oizyQsWr

— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) February 28, 2024

While Piastri is humble about his Padel skills, he is not ready to accept that Albon could be better, “Alex Albon has been giving me a lot of slack for being a bad Padel player. I have played against Alex, and I would say, we are at a very similar level.”

For Piastri, the best Padel players on the grid are Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, and Daniel Ricciardo. When asked about Max Verstappen, he said he hasn’t played with the Red Bull star but at the same time hasn’t heard “glowing reviews” about him.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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