Oscar Piastri Would Have Been a Golfer or Tennis Player if His Mother Nicole Had a Say in His Career

Formula 1 is a dangerous sport, and while Oscar Piastri has proven himself to be more than capable of driving cars at a high-speed week in and week out, his mother Nicole revealed that it wasn’t her first choice career option for her son.

“You know, If I had my way he would have been a Golfer,” said Nicole on the Red Flags Podcast. “That’s a mother’s sport. Just send him off to Golf. Even Tennis would be better than F1. But I did not [have a say]. There was no fighting it.”

Oscar, from a very young age, had started showing signs that he was destined for a career in F1. Nicole explained that once it became apparent that racing was something Oscar wanted to pursue, she could not stop him.

Plus, Oscar’s hobbies were a clear indicator that he was serious about racing from the get-go.

While other kids would indulge in reading children’s books and novels before bedtime, the now-McLaren driver would sneak in car magazines.

How Oscar developed lightning-fast reaction times?

Oscar, since joining F1, has shown that he can start races really well. And Nicole revealed the reason behind the same in the podcast.

Oscar tried to emulate the workings of a car from a very young age. In a video that Nicole and the hosts were watching, Oscar can be seen “spinning the wheels” of a car, before he started running on the spot – enacting the revving of a car’s engine. Then, he would burst into a run.

The hosts, upon seeing that, remarked that it showed in Piastri’s driving, as he is one of the quickest to get off the line in F1, once the lights go out.