From Monster Trucks to Exotic Las Vegas GP, Oscar Piastri Emotionally Relives His Rise to F1

There was no one driver more worthy of winning the 2023 season’s Rookie of the Season award than Oscar Piastri. The Australian was a revelation and justified all his talents after the McLaren turnaround. The rookie not only secured multiple podiums, he even managed to win a race, albeit in the sprint format. He has surely come a long way after spending a year on the sidelines.

However, his journey began much before the Alpine-McLaren saga. It started much before his success in the feeder series. It all started when he was 6-years-old. Would you like to know the rise of Oscar Piastri?

Oscar Piastri recalls his journey from RC cars to racing on the Las Vegas Strip

The rookie sat down with Hollywood star Dax Shepard on his Eff Won podcast and talked about life in and beyond F1. During this amalgamation of topics, Piastri revealed his journey from his RC car days to karting to racing in the first-ever Las Vegas GP. Let’s hear about this emotional journey in his own words.

During his conversation, Piastri revealed he started driving RC cars when he was 6. He initially started on dirt in his backyard driving a Traxxas monster truck. He then revealed, “After racing them for a bit, it’s difficult because basically if someone flips over you have to go turn them back onto their wheels which you’re 6 years old you’ve got RC cars flying through the air and stuff, it’s not that safe.”

This is why he moved to on-road racing, where the circuit racing side of things came into the picture for the first time in Piastri’s life. “Some people said, why don’t you go-kart a few years into that (track RC car racing) because I was decent at remote control cars. I mean there’s not a lot of crossover but basic setup ideas and racing lines, stuff like that, that transfers over. So I jumped into go-kart, I was decent and then next week I had my own. So went very quickly,” he recalled.

“It’s pretty crazy that 6-year-old me driving a monster truck around my backyard has ended up as me in Las Vegas racing down the strip, 15 years later,” he concluded.

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When put it like that, it’s a crazy journey made to sound easy. That’s perhaps Piastri himself cannot see the talent aspect of his journey which others clearly could.

Oscar Piastri dubbed to partner alongside Max Verstappen ahead of Lando Norris for a simple reason

Piastri might be humble, or unaware of his talents, but others aren’t. His “decent” output in karting and all other racing series that came after made him a sensation and made everyone around him sit up and take notice. Former team owner Eddie Jordan revealed that in a conversation earlier in the year while discussing the much-debated Red Bull seat.

He revealed an instance to give his backing for Piastri instead of Lando Norris to partner alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull.

Jordan revealed, “Way back in the late 80s with Johnny Herbert and he was managed by Mark Webber’s wife. I’ve had that relationship and understood and I thought she was probably the best and most professional manager of any sports person that I’ve come across. So she tipped me off and said ‘Listen I have to tell you this guy is the real deal.’ I think he is the real deal.”

“Full marks to McLaren, they signed him till 2026 because they needed to, because he will be a sought-after driver. If I was in Red Bull and I was thinking of replacing Checo, he’d be the one I’d have in my mind,” he confessed.

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If the hype around Piastri wasn’t enough already, there is more backing now if we believe Jordan. It will be exciting to follow the young Australian’s career.