Oscar Piastri is a racing driver from Australia who is a reserve driver for the Alpine F1 Team and the McLaren F1 Team. Piastri is the 2021 F2 Champion. His win made him join an elite list of drivers to win GP2/F2 titles in their rookie seasons. The list includes seven-time F1 Champ Lewis Hamilton, 2016 F1 Champion Nico Rosberg, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Niko Hulkenberg.
Piastri was born on April 6, 2001, in Melbourne city, Australia. He began his karting career in 2011, at age 10. To fund his racing career, he received his first sponsorship from his father’s company H.P. Tuners. Piastri was named to the TRS Arden Junior Team’s line-up for the British F4 championship in 2017. He won six races and held six pole positions there.
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Piastri joined the post-season test with reigning FIA Formula 3 team champions, Prema Racing, in October 2019 and was signed with the team for the 2020 season as well. In the final race of his debut F3 season, he won the F3 Championship by claiming the seventh position in the final round at Mugello. He was three points ahead of his main rival, Theo Pourchaire.
He replaced departing F1 driver, Mick Schumacher, in the F2 driver spot for Prema Racing. Piastri partnered with Robert Shwartzman for the 2021 season. In F2, he became the second driver after Juri Vips, to claim two races in a single weekend. The Australian clinched the title with a podium in the race at the Yas Marian Circuit. All in all, Oscar Piastri won six races in the 2021 F2 Season, more than any other driver on the grid.
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Currently, he is serving as the reserve driver for Alpine F1 Team as well as the McLaren F1 team. On August 2, 2022, Alpine tweeted that Piastri would be joining the team as the second driver on the team behind Esteban Ocon. The team detailed that he would take the place of departing two-time F1 Champion, Fernando Alonso, who has signed a multi-year deal to race for the Aston Martin F1 team from 2023.
Piastri refuted this claim from his official twitter handle saying that he has “not signed a contract with Alpine”.