Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri – biography, career and results

Quick facts

Who is Oscar Piastri?

Oscar Piastri took about the fastest route to the top of motorsport that anyone has managed: between 2019 and 2021 he won the championship in three different junior series in three consecutive seasons, then stepped straight into a Formula 1 car the following year. Neither Charles Leclerc nor George Russell managed that run on their own way up.

Born in Melbourne, he left Australia as a teenager to build his career from England, working his way toward Formula 1 as a member of the Renault, and later Alpine, driver academy. The road ended with a very public contract dispute, and when the dust settled he was a McLaren driver, not an Alpine one.

Since his 2023 debut, Piastri has become one of McLaren's key drivers: his first race win came in 2024, the season the team defended its constructors' title, and in 2025 he spent long stretches at the top of the championship table.

The early years

Piastri's first taste of racing came with radio-controlled cars, before he first climbed into a kart in 2011, aged ten, at the Oakleigh Go Kart Racing Club in Melbourne. Domestic titles followed in short order: the CIK Stars of Karting rookie category in 2013, then both the Victorian and South Australian championships in 2014.

By 2015 he was racing a full season in the KF-Junior category across Australia and Europe, taking a podium at the European Championship in Portugal and winning several domestic series along the way. Those results earned him a move to Britain's Ricky Flynn Motorsport for the OK-Junior category in 2016 – at just 14 he relocated to England, continuing his schooling at Haileybury and Imperial Service College. His karting career closed out at the 2016 CIK-FIA World OK-Junior Championship, where he started the final in Sakhir, Bahrain, from 18th and finished sixth after a mistake in the last chicane cost him a place in the top five.

Junior career

After karting, Piastri moved into single-seaters almost immediately, and every season that followed brought a higher category and a better result.

His 2017 British F4 season earned him the Joe Tandy Memorial Trophy, and after winning the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019 he joined the Renault Sport Academy, later rebranded the Alpine Academy. His 2020 F3 title – claimed with Prema Racing in a season reshaped by the pandemic, and without a single pole position – was followed immediately by the 2021 Formula 2 season, which he won as a rookie in his very first year in the category: only the sixth driver in the series' history to pull that off. The FIA recognised the season with its 2021 Rookie of the Year award.

The road to Formula 1

After clinching the Formula Renault Eurocup title, Piastri joined Renault's driver academy – soon renamed Alpine's – in January 2020, and stayed in that role through 2022. Once he'd won the 2021 F2 title, Alpine named him official reserve driver for 2022, a role in which he logged roughly 3,000 kilometres of private testing in the A521 Formula 1 car, while also getting time behind the wheel of McLaren's MCL35M and MCL36.

In the summer of 2022, on 4 July, Piastri – with his manager, nine-time Grand Prix winner and Australian veteran Mark Webber, brokering the deal – signed with McLaren. None of this was public yet: on 2 August, Alpine announced Piastri as their driver for 2023, and within hours the young Australian denied on social media that he had signed anything with them. The dispute went to the FIA's Contract Recognition Board at the end of August, which ruled on 2 September in favour of Piastri and McLaren, declaring the 4 July McLaren agreement the only valid contract. McLaren then officially confirmed that Piastri would race as Lando Norris's teammate from the 2023 season, on a multi-year deal.

Formula 1 career

Piastri made his Formula 1 debut with McLaren in 2023, taking Daniel Ricciardo's seat alongside Norris. He started his first race, the Bahrain Grand Prix, from 18th and retired with an electrical failure, but scored his first points just one race later, at his home race in Australia, finishing eighth. His maiden podium came in Japan, and later in the season he took his first sprint win at the Qatar Grand Prix, beating Max Verstappen to it. He closed out his rookie campaign ninth in the championship.

His first Formula 1 race win arrived in 2024. At the Hungarian Grand Prix he passed his teammate off the start; in the closing laps, following a team-order swap, the lead came back to him, and it was Piastri who took the chequered flag. The same season he won again in Azerbaijan, after a race-long battle with Charles Leclerc. He finished the championship fourth, and played an active part in McLaren winning the constructors' title for the first time since 1998.

Piastri signed a new McLaren deal running at least to the end of 2028 ahead of the 2025 season, which turned out to be the high point of his career so far: he took his first pole position in China, and stayed in contention for wins through the early and middle stretches of the championship. He led the standings for longer than any other driver that year – fifteen races in total – but finished third in the end, just thirteen points behind champion Norris, with Verstappen himself only two points off the title too: the tightest championship finish since the points system introduced in 2010. Piastri remains with McLaren for the 2026 season, the first year of Formula 1's new technical regulations.

Notable results outside Formula 1

Career timeline

• 2011 – starts karting in Melbourne
• 2015 – first full European karting season, then relocates to England
• 2016 – joins Ricky Flynn Motorsport, finishes 6th in the karting world championship, closing out his karting career
• 2017 – runner-up in the British Formula 4 Championship
• 2019 – Formula Renault Eurocup champion, joins the Renault driver academy
• 2020 – FIA Formula 3 champion with Prema Racing
• 2021 – FIA Formula 2 champion in his rookie season
• 2022 – Alpine reserve driver, then moves to McLaren after a public contract dispute
• 2023 – Formula 1 debut with McLaren, first podium in Japan
• 2024 – first Formula 1 race win at the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren wins the constructors' title
• 2025 – first pole position in China, leads the championship for long stretches, finishes third overall

Facts about Oscar Piastri's career

• Piastri is the only driver to have won the Formula Renault Eurocup, Formula 3 and Formula 2 in consecutive seasons – a run neither Charles Leclerc nor George Russell managed on the way up.
• He won the 2021 F2 title in his very first season in the category, only the sixth driver in Formula 2's history to do so.
• He claimed the 2020 F3 title in a pandemic-disrupted season without taking a single pole position.
• His first experience of racing came not in karts but with radio-controlled cars.
• At fourteen he moved from Australia to England alone to continue his racing career in Europe.
• In the 2022 summer contract dispute, the FIA's Contract Recognition Board ultimately ruled clearly in his and McLaren's favour, against Alpine.
• In 2025 he led the championship for fifteen races – more than any other driver that year – yet still finished only third in the end.

Frequently asked questions about Oscar Piastri's career

When did Oscar Piastri start racing?

He first raced radio-controlled cars as a young child, then got into a kart for the first time in 2011, aged ten, in his hometown of Melbourne.

What championships did Piastri win before Formula 1?

He won titles in three consecutive seasons: the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019, Formula 3 in 2020, and Formula 2 in 2021.

How did Oscar Piastri make it to Formula 1?

He came up through the Renault, later Alpine, driver academy, became Alpine's reserve driver in 2022, but signed with McLaren instead over the summer. The FIA's Contract Recognition Board settled the resulting dispute in favour of McLaren and Piastri, and he made his debut with them in 2023.

Did Piastri race in other series alongside his Formula 1 career?

No – after winning the Formula 2 title he moved straight into Formula 1, and has raced exclusively there since 2023.

Why did a contract dispute break out around Oscar Piastri in 2022?

Alpine announced that Piastri would race for them in 2023, even though he had already signed with McLaren on 4 July. The FIA's board ultimately ruled that only the McLaren contract was valid.

Has Oscar Piastri won a Formula 1 race?

Yes, he took his first race win in 2024 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, then won again that same season in Azerbaijan.

How did Piastri finish the 2025 season?

He finished third in the championship, having led the standings for most of the season, before narrowly losing out on the title to his teammate Lando Norris in the end.

Sources

• FIA Formula 3 – Oscar Piastri, 2020 Champion
• FIA Formula 2 – Oscar Piastri, 2021 Champion
• McLaren Formula 1 Team – Oscar Piastri driver profile
• Formula1.com – Timeline: How the Oscar Piastri saga unfolded
• Formula1.com – Facts and stats: Verstappen won more, Piastri led longer, but Norris is champion (2025)
• Karting Australia – Oscar Piastri sixth in World Championship
• Karting Australia – Oscar Piastri joins Ricky Flynn Motorsport in 2016
• Encyclopaedia Britannica – Oscar Piastri