“Thank you to everyone who voted, it was a great season!”: Formula 2 Champion Oscar Piastri wins Autosport’s 2021 Rookie of the Year award ahead of Mick Schumacher and Romain Grosjean

2021 Formula 2 Champion Oscar Piastri wins Autosport’s Rookie of the year award ahead of Mick Schumacher and Romain Grosjean.

The last two years have seen Piastri rise to stardom in the world of motorsports. He won three Championships in three years, starting with the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup. The following year, he won the F3 Title with Prema Powerteam. And finally, last year he announced himself to the world stage, by dominating the F2 Championship.

On his way to Title glory, Piastri won six races. The likes of Robert Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou put up a bit of challenge, but the 20-year old ended up finishing first by quite some margin.

Autosport hosted it’s annual prize giving ceremony last week, and Piastri ended up bagging the Rookie of the Year award. There were some other big names in contention like Mick Schumacher and Romain Grosjean. However, the Aussie prevailed in the end.

Schumacher had a decent, but quiet first year with Haas in F1. He didn’t score any points, but that was mainly due to the American team’s poor mechanical package for the season. In spite of going pointless, the 22-year old German drew plenty of plaudits as he showed glimpses of his brilliance in a sub-par car.

Grosjean on the other hand was left without an F1 seat in 2021 after his contract with Haas wasn’t renewed post 2020. He made the journey across the pond, competing in IndyCar. There, he had a good first season, standing on the podium three times.

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Oscar Piastri is looking forward to earning a seat in Formula 1 by 2023

Former F1 driver Jonny Herbert presented Piastri with the award at Grosvenor House in London on February 6th. The event was held in person for the first time in two years, as the 2020 version of the ceremony taking place online due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Upon receiving the award, Piastri said, “Thank you to everyone who voted, it was a great season. It is looking like a different kind of season for me this year on the sidelines but I’ll be pushing hard for sure.”

There have been some big names in the past who have won this award. Current F1 stars like Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc have all been recipients of this prestigious honor.

Despite his recent success, Oscar Piastri will be looking forward to earning an F1 seat for 2023. He missed out on a shot at F1 this season, but will spend the year as Alpine’s reserve driver.

The Melbourne born driver understands that he has to wait for his big break in F1. He plans to learn as much as possible from Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon as the team’s test driver, and will then work towards achieving his ultimate dream.

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