Oscar Piastri is a star for McLaren in F1 today, but his interest in cars began 21 years ago when he was just two. His mother Nicole revealed that he developed a love for vehicles, even before he learned to speak.
Oscar was never interested in bedtime stories as a child, said Nicole on the Red Flags Podcast. “We would have to read him car magazines, like, that’s from the age of younger than two so before Oscar could put sentences together.”
it’s so funny that Nicole piastre offered to adopt Yuki (right after Charles adopted Oscar) and now she’s wearing a Yuki shirt to give interviews
it’s still going somehow pic.twitter.com/BL5TZShESP
— Clara (@leclercsletters) August 5, 2024
Sometime later, Oscar would identify other cars on the road, and recognize them by their logos. He would point at them and say, “That’s a Ford, That’s a Toyota…” and so on.
At the same time, Nicole jested that she was glad Oscar’s first words were not names of cars or their brands. It was “either Mom or Dad”, much to her relief.
Oscar decided he would pursue racing from a very young age, and there wasn’t much Nicole could do about it. It was an unusual experience for her too, as she revealed later on in the podcast.
Oscar’s mom couldn’t relate to the experience of others
Nicole was part of a group that included “five or six” moms, and she recalled that Oscar was very different from the others’ kids. In fact, she had a tough time relating to the mothers, as she had to do things differently owing to Oscar’s passion in motorsports.
Other children loved traveling to concerts with their moms, but Oscar never participated in those. He remained clam, and was focused; he never showed any interest in dancing or related activities.
Nicole also pointed out that other kids would be happy to see their moms after waking up early morning. But Oscar would shout, and demand to be let out of the crib so that he could get on with his day.
After Oscar’s sisters were born, Nicole could relate more to the moms in her group. She also understood how she was different from the others.