Oscar Piastri is part of an elite list of drivers who managed to win F3 and F2 in consecutive years. Gabriel Bortoleto, Charles Leclerc, and George Russell are the only drivers to achieve the feat apart from the Aussie. Robert Shwartzman, who was Piastri’s teammate in F2, saw the brilliance unfold right in front of his eyes.
Shwartzman finished the 2021 F2 season in second behind Piastri. While that is a special feat in its own right, the Russian-Israeli driver had a gap of 60.5 points separating him from his Prema teammate. Shwartzman, however, attributes that giant gap to the ‘bad luck’ he endured during the first few race weekends of the season.
Looking to settle the score with the McLaren F1 driver, he challenged him to a ‘rematch.’ Unfortunately, four years down the line, both drivers race in different categories. While Piastri is an F1 driver, Shwartzman is awaiting his debut in IndyCar with Prema’s entry into the series. Hoping to one day see his ex-teammate in the American single-seater series, the 25-year-old would love to go head-to-head once again.
“We had a chat with him at some point, me and Oscar. And it was like, I would really love like a rematch with me and you. Like, in the season, like we’re gonna be again teammates,” Shwartzman said on The Red Flags Podcast.
“I would really love that challenge, you know, to battle until the last second for it. And yeah, he was laughing. He was like, he would like it too, but obviously he’s in Formula One. So yeah, I don’t know, maybe one day Oscar is going to be like, ‘all right, you know what? I’m going to come to Indy.’ That’s right. And I’m going to be waiting for him,” he concluded.
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Piastri may have only completed two seasons in F1, but he has certainly proven that he belongs in the premier class of motorsport. In his very first season with McLaren, he left his teammate Lando Norris in shock by bagging a sprint race win before him. That momentum continued in 2024 as Piastri secured two race wins as well.
Clearly, the #81 driver is here to stay. Shwartzman, therefore, might have to wait a long time for his former teammate to make the switch. Or perhaps the Indy debutant should keep F1 in his near-future plans?
