Oscar Piastri: From Radio Cars in Melbourne to McLaren Race Winner

Oscar Piastri is an Australian driver who went from radio-controlled cars in Melbourne to the McLaren Formula One team and a string of Grand Prix wins. He is the only driver in history to have won Formula Renault, Formula Three and Formula Two titles in successive seasons. His McLaren career has produced nine wins, including a title fight with Lando Norris in 2025.

How did Oscar Piastri start in racing?

Piastri began with radio-controlled cars in Melbourne, then moved into karting at ten at the Oakleigh Go Kart Racing Club. He won several state titles before moving to England at 14, where his father supported his international karting programme.

His father Chris founded HP Tuners, an automotive software company, and backed his son's junior career with up to A$6.5 million. Before karting, Oscar raced a radio-controlled monster truck in the backyard, then RC cars from the ages of seven to ten. He raced competitively aged nine with Remote Control Racing Australia and won the secondary class of the national championship.

He moved into karting in 2011, aged 10, at the Oakleigh Go Kart Racing Club. Two years later he won the CIK Stars of Karting in the Rookies class. In 2014 he won the club championship, the City of Melbourne Titles and the South Australian Championship. He finished third on his debut in the IAME International Final at Le Mans, starting from the twenty-first position on the grid.

At 14 he moved to Hertford in England, as a sports scholar at Haileybury, and from 2015 he raced across Europe with Kosmic. He finished sixth overall at the 2016 Karting World Championship in Sakhir, after qualifying fourth for the event and recovering from a fall down the order in the pre-final. Mark Webber took him under his wing in 2019, and he later became his manager.

Radio-controlled cars in Melbourne, three feeder titles in successive seasons and nine Grand Prix wins for McLaren.

What did Piastri win in junior formulae?

Piastri won the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup, the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship and the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship, the last two back to back. Those three titles made him the only driver to win Formula Renault, Formula Three and Formula Two in successive seasons.

His single-seater career began in the 2016 Formula 4 UAE Championship with Dragon F4, where he finished sixth overall. In 2017 he moved to the British F4 Championship with Arden, finishing runner-up to Jamie Caroline with six wins, six poles and 376.5 points. Arden was owned by Christian Horner, who later revealed he had turned down the chance to sign Piastri for the Red Bull junior team.

Formula Renault followed in 2017 and 2018. He made his Northern European Cup debut with Arden at Hockenheim and then finished the 2018 Eurocup with 110 points and three podiums, 165.5 behind champion Max Fewtrell. In 2019 he joined reigning champions R-ace GP and won the Eurocup by 7.5 points from Victor Martins, with seven wins from 11 podiums and five poles.

In 2020 he joined Prema in FIA Formula 3 as a member of the Renault Sport Academy, and he won a feature race on debut at Spielberg. He finished the season on 164 points, three ahead of Theo Pourchaire and four ahead of Logan Sargeant, with two victories from six podiums. He credited improved racecraft with helping him handle the stiffer competition.

In 2021 he stayed with Prema in Formula 2, replacing Mick Schumacher alongside Robert Shwartzman. He took the title on 252.5 points, 60.5 ahead of Shwartzman, with six wins, 11 podiums and five poles. He became the sixth driver to win the GP2 or Formula 2 title in his rookie season and was named FIA Rookie of the Year.

Why did the 2022 contract dispute with Alpine matter?

In 2022 Alpine announced Piastri as the replacement for Fernando Alonso, who had moved to Aston Martin, but he rejected the announcement and said he had not signed a contract. The FIA Contract Recognition Board later ruled against Alpine, and Piastri joined McLaren.

Piastri had been Alpine's reserve driver after his Formula 2 title, and in June 2022 he was offered a seat with Williams on loan from Alpine. In August, Alpine announced him as Alonso's successor in a press release that carried no comment from him. He rejected that announcement two hours later on social media, saying he had not signed and would not be driving for Alpine in 2023. Team principal Otmar Szafnauer criticised his integrity and threatened legal action.

A hearing of the Contract Recognition Board followed. Its ruling went against Alpine before the Dutch Grand Prix, and McLaren confirmed Piastri as its driver straight after. The board later revealed that he had signed his McLaren contract almost a month before Alpine's announcement, on 4 July, the day after the British Grand Prix. He had initially been guaranteed only a reserve role until Daniel Ricciardo was let go the week before the hearing.

Piastri later pointed to a breakdown in trust with Alpine as the reason he left,.

How did Piastri's McLaren career begin?

Piastri joined McLaren in 2023 alongside Lando Norris and scored his first podium at the Japanese Grand Prix that year, the first rookie podium since Lance Stroll in 2017. In 2024 he won his first two Grands Prix, in Hungary and Azerbaijan, and finished fourth in the championship.

He made his Formula One debut at the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix, qualifying eighteenth and retiring from twelfth with an electrical issue. His first points came in Australia, where he finished eighth from sixteenth on the grid. A tenth place at Monaco added another point, and major upgrades at the British Grand Prix brought him fourth after qualifying third.

His breakthrough came at Japan, where he started on the front row and finished third. He then took pole for the Qatar sprint, held off Max Verstappen to win it and finished second in the main race. He ended his rookie season ninth in the championship with 97 points and two podiums, 108 behind Norris. McLaren extended his contract to at least the end of 2026 on the back of those results.

The 2024 season produced his first victories. At Hungary he was second on the grid and passed Norris into the first corner, but a team strategy call let Norris undercut him, and McLaren then ordered a position swap. Norris let him through with two laps to go, and Piastri became the fifth Australian to win a Formula One Grand Prix. He repeated the feat at Azerbaijan after a race-long battle for the lead.

He finished the 2024 championship fourth on 292 points, 82 behind runner-up Norris, with two victories and eight podiums. McLaren won its first World Constructors' Championship since 1998 that season.

How did the 2025 title fight with Norris unfold?

McLaren entered 2025 as favourites. Three days before the season opener, it announced a contract extension for Piastri until at least the end of 2028. He won the Chinese Grand Prix from his maiden pole and then took the Bahrain Grand Prix by a 15-second margin, which moved him within three points of Norris. His win in Saudi Arabia made him the first Australian to lead the World Drivers' Championship since 2010.

Miami's sprint ended in second place behind Norris, and he then won the Grand Prix. He also won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole. In Canada he finished fourth after Norris crashed into the pit wall while trying to pass him, which pushed his lead to 22 points. He finished second in Austria after a race-long battle with Norris, and he led most of the wet British Grand Prix before a penalty for brake testing Max Verstappen on a restart handed the win to Norris.

He won the Belgian Grand Prix in wet-dry conditions after an early overtake on Norris at Raidillon. He then took pole in the Netherlands and held off Norris until his teammate's late engine failure, giving him his maiden grand chelem and a 34-point lead. At Azerbaijan he jumped the start, stalled and crashed on the opening lap, his first retirement in 45 Grands Prix.

Verstappen closed the gap in the second half of the year, and Norris and Piastri collided in the United States sprint. A strategic error by McLaren in Qatar let Verstappen win the Grand Prix ahead of Piastri, after Piastri had won the Qatar sprint from pole. He finished the season third, 13 points behind champion Norris, with seven victories and 16 podiums, both records for an Australian driver.

How did the 2026 season go?

Piastri failed to start in Australia and in China because of technical problems, then finished second in Japan behind Kimi Antonelli. He took third in the Miami Grand Prix and fifth in Belgium, but a gearbox failure ended his race from the lead at Hungary.

The regulation change began badly. In Australia he qualified fifth but crashed on his reconnaissance lap after an engine surge over a kerb, and he did not start the race. In China he scored sprint points with sixth place, then qualified fifth but failed to start the race after an electrical issue before the formation lap.

He finished second in Japan behind Antonelli, and in Miami he took second in the sprint before taking third in the Grand Prix. Monaco brought fifth on track and a promotion to fourth after a penalty for Pierre Gasly, but he lost that place when the penalty was overturned on appeal. Barcelona and Austria produced fifth and fourth places.

At Hungary he qualified third after a grid penalty for Lewis Hamilton and led several laps before a collision with Carlos Sainz Jr. A gearbox problem forced his retirement on lap fifty-six. He finished sixth in the Dutch Grand Prix, fifth in Italy after a three-place grid penalty for impeding Liam Lawson, eighth in Spain and thirteenth in Azerbaijan.

What kind of driver is Piastri?

Piastri is known for composure under pressure, and critics have compared his calm approach to Kimi Raikkonen and Alain Prost. Engineers have praised his ability to identify flaws in real time, and by 2025 many observers felt he had largely fixed the tyre and qualifying issues of his early seasons.

Scott Mitchell-Malm of The Race compared his relaxed intensity in 2023 to that of Max Verstappen. Luke Smith of The New York Times wrote that stress was not an emotion one would associate with Piastri, and Martin Brundle compared him to Alain Prost after the 2025 Bahrain win. Verstappen praised his approach after the Saudi Arabian win, saying he rarely made mistakes.

Top Gear's Natalie Pinkham described him as the cerebral assassin during his title fight with Norris, saying he raced like someone solving a complex puzzle at high speed.

Race engineer Tom Stallard praised his ability to find flaws and make improvements without relying on data analysis. Sky Sports called his rookie campaign very impressive but pointed out that his tyre management needed work. By 2025 he had worked closely with his engineers and analysed his past performances to solve the tyre and qualifying problems.

Career summary