Oscar Piastri has revealed the reasons why he supported a rival team to McLaren before reaching Formula 1.
The 23 year-old has been an F1 fan since his youth, having followed in the footsteps of fellow Australian drivers Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo.
After winning back-to-back titles in F1 feeder series F3 and F2 between 2020 and 2021, he quickly established himself as the next prodigy who would reach the pinnacle and has spoken to the Tailenders Podcast after a positive start to his second campaign in Formula 1.
Oscar Piastri reveals his allegiance before joining McLaren
Oscar Piastri was at the centre of a major F1 controversy in 2022, after Alpine announced that he would replace the outgoing Fernando Alonso.
After taking to social media to deny the move, he later revealed that he signed a contract with McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo from the 2023 season. The saga was eventually settled by F1’s Contract Recognition Board, having cost Alpine nearly £540,000 in legal fees, as per BBC Sport.
Despite the desire to race for another outfit, the Australian was not always a McLaren fan when growing up due to a specific reason.
“When I was a kid, I was watching F1 but I always tried to follow the Aussies,” he told the Tailenders podcast.
“At the time it was Mark Webber, who is now my manager, and he was driving for Red Bull. So I was a Red Bull fan growing up, or a Mark fan, not so much a McLaren fan.
“Now I am a massive McLaren fan! At the time growing up, then there was Daniel Ricciardo after Mark who was also at Red Bull. So I wasn’t a fan of a team, but I was a fan of the Aussies driving for the team.”
McLaren home to ‘all the great drivers’
McLaren has long been a team synonymous with fielding some of the best drivers, including Ayrton Senna, Alan Prost, Kimi Raikkonen, and Niki Lauda.
Oscar Piastri took his first victory with the team during the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint race in his debut year and has finished on the podium three times.
Since their early success, Piastri has started to realise the significance of driving for the team: “I appreciated the history of McLaren after I’d joined the team. But as I got a bit older, I learned more about the history of F1 and all the great drivers that have raced at McLaren.
“I knew Lewis [Hamilton] raced and won his first championship here but you go back to Senna, Prost, Lauda, I started to appreciate that more when I got a bit older.”
Piastri is contracted to race with McLaren until the end of 2026, cementing his long-term future with the outfit.
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