Oscar Piastri is in a small side room at St Kilda’s famous Espy hotel, just a few kilometres from where he’ll be gunning for glory in Sunday’s Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.
It’s invitation-only and the questions are pre-approved by PR people but Piastri, the home-town hero and a former F2 and F3 world champion, isn’t shirking the question about whether he could win the Formula 1 world title in his McLaren in 2025.
Australian Formula 1 superstar Oscar Piastri takes greeting fans in his stride just days out from his home grand prix.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“I think I can be [F1 world champion],” he says. “It’s going to be a year of hard work, and it’s going to be an incredibly tight year.
“It’s probably going to be even tighter than it was at the end of last season. For me winning a championship is not something new … it’s obviously very different to try and do it in Formula 1.
“But I’ve had that experience before. I know what it takes. I think now I have all the tools I need to try and achieve a championship.”
This event for Jack Daniel’s is one of several appearances for Piastri on Wednesday, during which he is backed by a team of people who keep him moving from one sponsor gig to the next with military precision, never appearing to be caught up in the hype of his home grand prix week and remaining focused on his actual job.
This weekend’s Australian Grand Prix is the first of the new season and McLaren, which announced a contract extension for Piastri on Wednesday morning, has last year’s constructors’ championship to their credit. In 2025, Piastri’s biggest rival could well be his teammate, Lando Norris.
Piastri enjoyed some rare downtime in Australia over the off-season, attending the Boxing Day Test and the Australian Open, before he cast his attention to pre-season F1 testing in Bahrain. It wasn’t an entire summer of relaxing, however, as Piastri again used the facilities at the Victorian Institute of Sport, located within the Albert Park circuit, to stay in top physical condition – a reality for F1 drivers.
Piastri hits the gym ahead of the first round of the new Formula 1 season – in his home town of Melbourne.Credit: Victorian Institute of Sport
“It’s kind of almost my local gym. It has got everything I need,” said Piastri of the facilities. Like other elite racers, maintaining neck strength was one of his priorities.
“We did a test the other day and I did just over 50 kilos on one of my sides [of my neck]. I was pretty happy with that.”
While the city’s bedrock sport, Australian rules, launches into action with the first AFL match in Melbourne on Thursday night between Richmond and Carlton, this year’s grand prix at the Albert Park street circuit will have added zing, thanks to the continued hype around Piastri.
The city is being impacted by papaya fever, for black and papaya orange are the colours which adorn the McLaren cars.
Piastri, 24 next month, is preparing for his third F1 season, with two grand prix wins last year to his name. A drought-breaking win for an Australian on local soil is within reach.
McLaren, however, was restricting his appearances and movements this week to ensure his mind is not taken off his most important job: striving for podium glory at Albert Park on Sunday, and the prospect of becoming Australia’s first local race winner since Alan Jones in 1980.
Drive through any intersection in inner-city Melbourne and it’s hard to escape the hype. Piastri’s face is on many a billboard. Want to go out for a burger? Well, you can grab your “limited edition” Piastri Wagyu burger at one well-known burger chain. “Sink your teeth into a pasture-raised, premium Wagyu beef patty on a charcoal bun with supercharged OP chipotle mayo, crispy bacon …”
Piastri attending the men’s semi-finals at the Australian Open earlier this year.Credit: Tennis Australia/Fiona Hamilton
Oscar’s mum, Nicole Piastri, last year described the firstborn of her four children – the F1 star has three younger sisters – as “painfully mature”. “He’s like an old man in a young man’s body,” she said. Following Piastri around Melbourne on Wednesday and hanging on every word he uttered, you know what she meant.
Later, as he appeared on stage for another sponsor, Piastri gave a deeper insight.
“Going into the season there are realistically there’s probably eight drivers who can realistically achieve that [the title] this year,” he said.
He expanded on how valuable it has been to have Webber as part of his management set-up. Piastri said he’d been able to use Webber’s “hindsight as my foresight”.
Piastri arrives at a corporate function in a McLaren Artura painted by Melbourne artist Reko Rennie.Credit: Chris Hopkins
“He’s had a similar pathway from Australia, but for me the real benefit is obviously the stuff he learnt from his Formula 1 career,” Piastri said.
“Mark is still incredibly sharp in terms of picking up on all the little details and trying to help not just myself but the whole team improve.”
The Australian Grand Prix has been riding a wave of success this decade, with sold-out race weekends thanks in part to the impact of Netflix series Drive To Survive, which has driven renewed interest in F1, especially among female fans. Having Piastri atop podium or at least on it on Sunday would be more than a boon to the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.
“There’s huge hype around Oscar [for] round one,” said AGPC chief executive Travis Auld.
“That won’t worry Oscar too much, you won’t think.
“For a relatively small country to have two Australian drivers [Piastri and debutant Jack Doohan] on the grid is something that we don’t take for granted.”
