Oscar Piastri is having a dream rookie season, putting in some scintillating performances. He has managed to earn a contract renewal even before nearing the end of his current deal with McLaren. As per F1 photojournalist Kym Illman, the new contract will give Piastri a bumper raise, from the $2,000,000 that he already earns per season.
Piastri managed to surprise everyone after putting in a series of strong performances towards the start of the second half of the season. His performance peaked at the Qatar GP when he managed to get the pole ahead of the sprint shootout, and converted it into a win.
Oscar Piastri’s rookie season is 🔥
– consistent points
– 2 podiums
– sprint pole position
– sprint race win pic.twitter.com/qWkMahAneO— WTF1 (@wtf1official) October 8, 2023
He followed it up with a win in the Sprint Race, his first win of any kind in his F1 career. The breathtaking performances meant that McLaren wanted to secure his services for the long-term, and thus, offered him a contract extension until the end of 2026.
Oscar Piastri is already earning more than the likes of Alonso and Ricciardo
In a recent video by Kym Illman, he made a deep dive into the finances involved with the drivers. He revealed that under the new contract, Oscar Piastri would be earning around $8,000,000 a year, a $6,000,000 jump from his previous figure.
While revealing the driver incomes, Illman said, “Oscar Piastri on 2 [Million], now this was done prior to Oscar resigning his contract. So I would suggest that that figure has bumped up markedly. To what? I’ve got to guess 8 [Millions].”
This increment brings him alongside the likes of George Russell and ahead of drivers like Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo in terms of earnings. And with the rate at which the youngster is improving, it won’t be surprising if he surpasses the likes of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc in the future.
A bright future for the Australian
Touted as a future world champion, Piastri already already has a place in F1 locked in until 2026. If McLaren manage to improve like they are doing right now, Piastri will surely have quite a few race wins under his belt, and could potentially even challenge for the world championship.
The rate at which the Papaya outfit has been improving will also be a good sign for the Australian rookie. He would definitely need good machinery underneath him to make best use of his talent.
