Oscar Piastri was already one of the most promising young talents of his generation when he was made to sit out a season of racing after winning the Formula 2 championship in 2021. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free With multiple podium finishes and even a sprint race victory in Qatar, Piastri already had the tools in place to help McLaren push towards the front of the field in 2024 alongside team mate Lando Norris . And over the first 14 rounds of the season, Piastri has done exactly that.
Although McLaren were not quite as far up the grid as they might have hoped at the start of the season, Piastri was remarkably consistent in the opening rounds. Especially in qualifying, where he secured eight top six starts in the opening nine rounds of the championship. His races were solid, but he was perhaps not quite reaching the same level as his Saturdays, as evidenced by his mid-race mistakes in Melbourne and Suzuka.
He also couldn’t quite seem to match Norris’ pace early on in the season, finishing behind his team mate in six of the first seven rounds. But while luck seemed to smile on Norris, Piastri was not afforded that same luxury. While the timing of the Safety Car in Miami worked out perfectly for Norris, Piastri, who had been running second, dropped to fourth as a result, then missed out on scoring any points at all after being hit by Carlos Sainz Jnr at the hairpin.
More misfortune followed in Imola, where he qualified second but was dropped to fifth on the grid for impeding Kevin Magnussen in qualifying in an incident that was solely his team’s fault. He was just 0.15s away from pole in Monaco which would have almost certainly secured him victory, but was forced to spend all 78 laps staring at Charles Leclerc ’s rear wing on his way to second.
His only truly underwhelming performance came in Spain. While Norris took pole, Piastri was down in tenth after screwing up his only push lap attempt in Q3. From there, while his team mate finished behind Verstappen in second, Piastri climbed only to seventh, half a minute behind the other McLaren at the end of his worst weekend of the season.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free But after Spain, with McLaren now regular race win contenders, Piastri found the best form of his still-young career so far. He just missed out on victory in Austria after Norris and Verstappen collided, ruing that the stewards had deleted his best time in Q3 in contentious circumstances – something he still remains disgusted about. He should have had a better result than fourth the next weekend at Silverstone, but McLaren’s failure to bring him in for intermediates behind Norris ended any hopes he had of fighting for victory.
Finally, in Hungary, he received his reward for dealing with all the misfortune. Despite losing pole position to his team mate, Piastri charged by Norris into the lead of the race at the start and looked entirely comfortable out front – until McLaren allowed Norris to jump ahead of him with an earlier final stop. Despite several nervous laps, Norris eventually respected team orders to allow Piastri back into the lead, allowing the 23-year-old to become the eighth-youngest grand prix winner in history.
His later revelation that he had been contending with a fractured rib at the time only made his triumph more impressive in hindsight. Piastri headed into the summer break with another very strong showing in Spa. Although he was just pipped by Norris in qualifying, Piastri got ahead of his team mate into La Source, then showed formidable pace in the race to catch and pass Leclerc to finish third behind the two Mercedes – only to be moved up to second after Russell’s disqualification.
Although Norris has been the higher-placed McLaren driver for the bulk of the season, even he admits that he has not yet earned preferential status for the rest of the year over Piastri. As both McLaren drivers look to reel in Red Bull in the constructors’ championship, it will be fascinating to see whether Piastri is still placed behind his team mate after the chequered flag falls in Abu Dhabi. Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free.
