Oscar Piastri created one of the biggest headlines in F1 last year, despite not being a part of the grid. After Alpine announced him as Fernando Alonso’s replacement, the Aussie publicly slammed the team he was a reserve driver for, by revealing that he wasn’t going to drive for them. Instead, after a weeks-long legal battle between Alpine and McLaren, he joined to latter to become teammates with Lando Norris.
Norris, who is one of the most popular and talented drivers in F1, has been the main figure at McLaren for over two years now. He outperformed eight-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo during their time as teammates, and most people expect him to fend off Piastri’s challenge in the same way.
However, as far as McLaren is concerned they want both their drivers on the same level. As a team, they aren’t in the place they want to be but are confident about Piastri’s abilities to match Norris, at least in the long run. CEO Zak Brown labeled his expectations from the 22-year-old heading into round four of the 2023 championship.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have to push each other
The first two rounds of the 2023 season were disastrous for McLaren, as they left both Jeddah and Bahrain with zero points. In Australia, however, a chaotic finish to the race ensured a double points finish for the Woking-based outfit, and now, they want to carry forward this momentum into the coming races.
“What we want to have, is two drivers that are pushing each other,” said Brown as quoted by Formu1a.uno. “And I think early indications are that Oscar will be on the same pace as Lando. And the two of them will push each other hard.”
Brown went on to say that providing the drivers with a car that can reach the front is their responsibility, but having drivers who can utilize the full potential of the car helps them build confidence. He considers both Piastri and Norris as drivers who can drive the team’s success moving forward.
Piastri with his first points finish in front of home crowd in Melbourne
Piastri finished outside of the points in the opening two races of his F1 career. The Melbourne-born was patient and insisted that he was taking notes of the positives from an otherwise underwhelming drive, and it paid off.
In the third round of the season, Piastri scored his maiden F1 points when he crossed the finish line in P8, in front of his home crowd. Piastri will now be looking to build on this performance in two weeks time when the traveling circus visits Baku for round four of the 2023 F1 Championship.
