Following Lewis Hamilton’s emotional farewell announcement earlier this month, Mercedes and the seven-time World Champion have become the hottest topic of discussion in the world of Formula 1. Their ‘record-breaking’ partnership has been the talking point of all Formula 1 conversations, and will likely be gossiped throughout their last season.
Joining onto this ‘gossip’ party, the McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has also spilled his words into the piping-hot ‘Lewis Hamilton-Mercedes’ topic.
Oscar Piastri shares candid thoughts on Hamilton’s potential F1 win
Formula 1’s majority opinions picture Lewis Hamilton’s perfect goodbye to Mercedes would be by winning his ‘record’ eighth Driver’s Championship and breaking the ‘legendary’ Michael Schumacher’s record. But the current McLaren #81 Oscar Piastri holds a contradictory opinion about this.
In an interview on the Fast and the Curious podcast, Oscar Piastri revealed his personal insights about Hamilton’s last season with Mercedes. During the interview, he was asked whether Hamilton, who had his last Grand Prix victory back in 2021, winning the Championship this season would be an ‘incredible story’ or not. To this, he replied, “No, it would not be incredible… What are you talking about?”
Instead of Hamilton, Piastri sarcastically shared that him (Piastri) winning the Championship with McLaren would be a ‘much better story’.
“I think Oscar Piastri wins his first world championship is a much better story,” he added.
Immediately after Piastri finished, everyone at the podcast burst out laughing. But once the laughter stopped, the host pointed out that the Australian F1 racer has to wait a bit longer before getting hands on the Championship.
The host meant that Piastri must first gain more experience through a few more years of F1 racing, following his ‘good’ rookie season with McLaren.
Oscar Piastri’s rookie season with McLaren in numbers
The 20-year-old Australian Oscar Piastri raced his rookie season with McLaren last year, replacing the outgoing Daniel Ricciardo. He made his McLaren debut at the Abu Dhabi Young Driver Test.
The McLaren youngster had a poor start to his rookie season, which he totally did not expect. But he showed his true racing capabilities when McLaren brough in an upgraded MCL60 at the Austrian GP.
He then secured the pole position in the sprint shootout of the Qatar Grand Prix, after multiple consistent performances. During the race, he showed incredible ‘pitstop’ timing skills, and eventually finished 1.87s ahead of Max Verstappen.
At the end of the 2023 F1 season, Oscar Piastri stood at the 9th position in the Driver’s standings with overall 97 points. During this rookie season with McLaren, he earned 9 Grand Prix starts. From his 9 starts, Piastri secured 4 ‘Top 5’ finishes and crossed the chequered flag 11 times in the ‘Top 10’ positions.
Oscar Piastri will start his 2nd season with McLaren on 2nd March at the season-opener Bahrain Grand Prix.
Can Piastri have a shot at the 2024 F1 championship with McLaren? Does Lewis Hamilton really have a chance to win the World Championship with Mercedes in his last season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
