Who is Oscar Piastri? The 2020 F3 winner now racing for PREMA in F2

To win Formula 3 is no mean feat, but it’s almost a rite of passage. Whilst the competition has only been under the name FIA Formula Three as an international category since 2019, the likes of Valtteri Bottas, Daniil Kyvat, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Mick Schumacher have all won equivalent categories since 2011; add to that list, Oscar Piastri.

His 2020 F3 title secured his drive alongside Robert Schwartzmann for PREMA Racing in F2 this season, but how has Piastri’s career progressed so far?

Piastri’s early career:

Born in Melbourne on April 6 2001, Piastri only started his karting career at the fairly late age of 11. By comparison, Lewis Hamilton was already British Kart Champion at the same age Piastri began competing.

However, despite starting later than many of his peers, the Australian clearly had potential and it wasn’t long before he started making an impression in his homeland.

In 2013, he was crowned champion of the CIK Stars of Karting Championship, and he followed that up with victory in the South Australian Junior Championship and the Victorian State Junior Championship in 2014.

After competing in the 2015 Australian National Championship, he followed that with entries into the CIK European Championship, the WSK Final Cup & Super Masters Series and the DKM German Championship in 2016.

He impressed in all, without taking victory in any, and was promoted to a single-seater drive in selected rounds of the 2017 UAE F4 Championship. He took two podiums and ended the series in fourth place.

Staying in F4 later in the same year, Piastri was confirmed as a full-time driver for the TRS Arden Junior Team in the British F4 Championship. He took six wins, six pole positions and 15 podiums to finish second in the standings, ahead of the likes of Logan Sargeant and Olli Caldwell, who are competing in F3 this year.

His impressive drive in the series saw him promoted to Arden’s Formula Renault Eurocup team for 2018. In his debut year he took home three podiums, and whilst he finished behind Sargeant and current F2 driver Christian Lundgaard in the standings, he secured a drive with champions R-ace GP for the 2019 season.

In his second campaign in the category, Piastri bounced back from a P18 finish in the opening race to storm to victory, winning seven races and appearing on the podium a total of 11 times as he was crowned champion. 

Moving up to F3 with PREMA Racing for 2020, Piastri made it back-to-back championship wins after he beat out Theo Pourchaire by just three points and the aforementioned Sargeant by four points to claim the title.

With only two wins all year, compared to Pourchaire’s three, Piastri relied on four other podiums, and a string of points finishes to secure the victory. It was arguably the most competitive F3, or equivalent, season in recent history and two key rounds helped Piastri to victory.

Round one saw him gain the advantage over Pourchaire, and it was round eight that helped him in the fight with Sargeant.

Starting with round one, Piastri scored a victory in the first race, before finishing eighth in the second race; that was in comparison to Pouchaire’s 13th and 26th placed finishes. The Australian scored 18 points at the Red Bull Ring, whereas Pourchaire didn’t register a single point.

Moving onto the decisive round in the battle with Sargeant, round eight. Whilst Piastri retired in the second race, his third place and 10 points in the opening race was good enough to hold off the American Sargeant, who failed to score after finishing P26 and then P24. The PREMA driver came good when it mattered most, and he hung on to claim the title. 

Before that title winning season, Piastri was signed up to the Alpine Driver Academy (in January 2020) and is a driver that the hierarchy at the French team are keeping a close eye on.

However, with the likes of Guanyu Zhou and Lundgaard also part of the same academy, Piastri will have to impress this year if he wants a shot at an F1 seat above those two.

His F2 career so far:

Partnering Schwartzmann was never going to be an easy task for Piastri; the Russian finished fourth last year, ahead of current F1 driver Nikita Mazepin, and is arguably the title favourite for this season.

However, after the Russian’s opening weekend didn’t go as planned, Piastri took full advantage and will now be wanting to consolidate the lead he’s built up over his teammate.

That lead came courtesy of a fifth place finish in the first sprint race, in which Schwartzmann beat him, and a P1 and race win in the second sprint race.

His win was secured via an exceptional last lap move on fellow Alpine driver Zhou, who looked primed and ready for victory. On fresh tyres as a result of two late Safety Cars, Piastri was able to swoop past Zhou to claim his maiden F2 win.

A DNF in the feature race ensured he was unable to capitalise on his form in the opening two races, but he currently sits P5 in the championship on 21 points, six clear of teammate Schwartzmann.

Whilst he is still an F2 rookie, if he can keep his early season form up, then he will have a shot at an F1 seat next year, especially if Fernando Alonso has a poor season or Esteban Ocon decides to leave.

Yuki Tsunoda only spent a single season in F2, and Piastri could be next. However, the chances are that he’ll be given 2022 to develop even further and aim for a seat in the 2023 season, when Alonso’s contract expires.

The Aussie has speed and would desperately love to join fellow countryman Daniel Ricciardo in the premier class of motorsport. We’ll have to wait and see whether that comes to fruition, but either way you should expect to see Piastri’s name close to the front of every F2 race from now until the end of the season.