McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has caught the eyes of many recently as he continues to perform at the highest level despite only being in his rookie season. One such individual who seems amazed with the Australian’s performance is British F1 expert David Croft. The 53-year-old seemed so astonished with Piastri that he compared the 2021 F2 champion to 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button.
Croft stated that what impressed him most about Piastri was the 22-year-old’s skills to drive in wet conditions at a challenging venue like SPA. Piastri was indeed very impressive during the Belgian Grand Prix as he qualified second in the sprint shootout before finishing the sprint race in the same position.
Bravo, @OscarPiastri! 🙌🥈#BelgianGP #F1Sprint pic.twitter.com/2htJmJVQvr
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 29, 2023
Even though the Australian could not carry on his performance in the main race, having retired on the first lap due to a mistake he made, he did more than enough to showcase his true potential. It is this reason why F1 experts like Croft have already begun comparing Piastri to former world champions like Button.
David Croft considers Oscar Piastri a future world champion
While speaking on the most recent episode of the Sky Sports F1 podcast, David Croft began by explaining how well he thought Oscar Piastri drove “in the tricky conditions from wet to dry” at SPA. He added that the Australian’s race engineer, Tom Stallard, also compared the 22-year-old to Jenson Button, which he believes was a fair comparison.
“Tom Stallard, his race engineer, said Jenson Button territory. And he (Piastri) very much was Jenson Button territory. And it shows why Oscar Piastri is very much the real deal for the future, and one absolutely that needs to be watched out for“, explained Croft.
After praising the 22-year-old, Croft went on to laud McLaren for turning their season around brilliantly. The 53-year-old believes that McLaren CEO Zak Brown deserves credit for the same, having made some good changes in the personnel.
McLaren have had a remarkable turnaround from the start of the season
Considering that McLaren were fighting at the back of the grid at the start of the 2023 season, it is fair to say that they have had an unbelievable turnaround. This is because from failing to make it to Q3 repeatedly at the start of the season, they have now fought for podiums in the last three races.
Lando Norris has finished twice on the podium in this time, while Oscar Piastri clinched a second-place finish at the sprint race at SPA. However, despite this turnaround, the Woking based-outfit still do have some weaknesses.
Norris had pointed out earlier how the car is still pretty “terrible” in the slow-speed corners, and how McLaren are unlikely to perform well at races, which have such turns. Even though McLaren may still have some deficits with the car, it is fair to say that they do seem as the closest challengers to leaders Red Bull currently.
Moving on up! 📈 We’ll continue the hard work for the rest of the season to keep pushing the limits. 👊 pic.twitter.com/KYbGmzHP4e
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) August 5, 2023
The Milton Keynes outfit have been buzzing, having just clinched a new record of winning 13 races in a row (one last season). As a result, they have clearly laid down a marker this year as no team has come close to beating them.
However, with McLaren having shown remarkable improvement with just one upgrade, they could pose a real threat to Red Bull in the latter half of the season. Now, only time will tell if McLaren or any other team are able to break Red Bull’s current domination.
