Oscar Piastri has rarely been out of the spotlight since he started to turn heads in the F1 paddock and debuted in the sport. Still, there are multiple aspects of his life, that people are unaware of, much to Piastri’s preference of keeping stuff private. One of his former teammates from the junior formulas – Frederik Vesti revealed one such insider information about the Aussie, citing how Piastri is quite a good chess player.
In a YouTube video by The Fast and the Curious, when the hosts Betty Glover and Christian Hewgill asked Vesti about some gossip about Piastri, he replied, “I am practicing still hard to beat Oscar in Chess. Because we used to live very close to each other and he’s very impressive, I have to say”.
The Danish driver hoped that he could have a “rematch” soon with his 2020 Formula 3 teammate. This chess revelation surprised both hosts and they exclaimed how Piastri had never mentioned playing chess on their podcast, despite being a regular guest. However, that is not true, as in February 2024, the McLaren driver revealed a chess story on an episode of The Fast and the Curious podcast itself.
The 22-year-old told an anecdote about how he was playing chess amid the huge Alpine-McLaren controversy over his F1 contract in 2022. While Piastri may not have mentioned he is quite good at playing chess, the Aussie won’t want to blow his own trumpet at that!
Nonetheless, the hosts got their “first-hand” information from Vesti this time around, who is a good friend of Piastri too, besides being his former F3 teammate. However, the Dane is at a different stage in his career, just having graduated out of F2, contrasting to Piastri who is already in F1.
Can Frederik Vesti join his old pal Oscar Piastri in F1?
Oscar Piastri has seen a remarkable rise through the ranks to get to F1. Since 2019, the #81 driver went on a streak of winning championships including F3 and F2. Meanwhile, his peers like Frederik Vesti had to spend multiple seasons in F3 and F2 before getting the next step up.
So, one can say that the Aussie is ahead of the curve in his career progression relative to Vesti. However, that doesn’t mean the Mercedes Academy driver is not talented enough. In his F2 campaign in 2023, the Dane went quite close to winning the title against Theo Pourchaire.
However, his challenge came undone at the final race weekend in Abu Dhabi, as Pourchaire won the 2023 F2 title, finally at the third time of asking. While it was Vesti’s 2nd season itself, he has moved out of the feeder series for 2024 and is focusing on staying as the reserve driver for Mercedes.
Vesti’s name has been in discussion for a prospective F1 seat but is yet to become a top contender who may become the next rookie on the F1 grid. Besides his reserve duties for Mercedes, Vesti would also be competing in the European Le Mans series in the LMP2 category in 2024. The Danish driver would hope that his performances on track in European Le Mans land him a spot in F1 sooner than later.
