Hyped Up By Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri Challenges the F1 Champ and He Agrees

Oscar Piastri grabbed a significant amount of the limelight following his outstanding victory during the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday. Even though the Australian lost the lead to George Russell after starting on pole, he brilliantly managed the tires to retake the lead from the Mercedes driver. With the 22-year-old rookie winning his first F1 race in any format, former McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was quick to congratulate him. On reading the 38-year-old’s remarks, Piastri made a request of his own.

Hamilton not only congratulated Piastri on social media but also via his team’s radio. While speaking to Bono after the race (as quoted by Deni), the Briton asked him, “Did McLaren win“?

Soon after Bono confirmed that Piastri won the race, Hamilton replied, “Ah, amazing! Impressive! Oscar and the team“. Since the seven-time world champion was so appreciative of Piastri, the 2021 F2 champion took full advantage and made a cheeky request of his own.

Oscar Piastri makes a cheeky request to Lewis Hamilton

Following the conclusion of the race, Lewis Hamilton took to Instagram and congratulated Oscar Piastri. The 38-year-old wrote, “Congratulations! Keep up the great work“. On reading the Briton’s post, the 22-year-old replied, “Thanks mate. Fancy an RC (remote control) race soon“. In reply, Hamilton told Piastri to “run it“.

Hamilton is passionate about RC racing and most recently did so against Alpine’s Esteban Ocon during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend. Speaking of it, the 38-year-old said during a press conference (as quoted by crash.net), “So Esteban and I had planned a while ago that while we are here we would get our remote control cars together and have a bit of a race in the pit lane“.

Hamilton then added how this reminded him of his childhood days by stating, “For me, it was very reminiscent of when I was a kid on Blue Peter and it was really cool. We all share more in common than we probably think other than the fact we are pure rare. It’s very rare we all get to do things like that. It was fun“. While Hamilton has enjoyed RC racing since childhood, so has Piastri.

Piastri began his career with RC racing

Prior to joining any of the Formula categories, Oscar Piastri competed in RC racing. In an interview during his F3 days, the Australian explained how he also went on to win the national championship in RC racing. However, he decided to not choose RC racing as a full-time career as this would have required him to travel the world from a very young age.

“Me and my dad were talking about it (as a potential career) and we did think about doing it. But, trying to travel the world at the age of nine or ten, even with my dad, there would have been a lot of risks and uncertainties,” explained Piastri (as quoted by fiaformula3.com). However, ironically, the 22-year-old ended up choosing a similar path.