At the moment, McLaren’s a weird team to drive for in F1. The universe has seemingly given them an absurd ability to foreshadow victories that begin with getting injured. Lando Norris was the first to unlock this with a horrible nose injury ahead of his maiden F1 victory at the Miami GP. In an uncanny coincidence, his teammate Oscar Piastri has one-upped him by revealing a 10 times worse injury from before the Hungarian GP.

Since the second half of 2023, only McLaren drivers have been frequenting hospitals. A former driver for the Woking outfit (2021-22), Daniel Ricciardo, was the first to get all plastered up. Attempting to avoid Oscar Piastri’s barrier-crashed MCL60 in Zandvoort, he drove into a different part of the barrier, breaking his left metacarpal. However, the injury resulting in victory rule wasn’t applicable then. It only came into effect in 2024.

Fast forward to 2024, another former driver, Carlos Sainz, developed appendicitis and underwent surgery. While that can’t be classified as an injury, he went on to win the Australian GP on returning for Ferrari. Then Lando Norris, from McLaren’s current line-up, cut his nose on a broken glass ahead of the Miami GP, which he won. Now, Oscar Piastri has very nonchalantly unveiled that he too was injured, with a broken rib, before his maiden F1 win in Hungary.

The young Aussie shared a photo dump of various ‘firsts’ from the first half of 2024 on Instagram. He captioned the post: “First part of the season done. First GP victory. First broken bone. Rib’s enjoying the break 💪”. The last slide of the carousel was an X-ray of his broken left rib, dated 8th August, 2024 – a day after the British GP and 2 weeks before the next race in Hungary.

These coincidences are quite freaky. It’s very surprising how Piastri, who’s a silent killer on-track and equally composed off of it, managed to win with a broken rib that usually affects breathing as well. His manager Mark Webber’s assessment of his mentality somewhat explains this happening.

Mark Webber tips his hat to “special talent” Oscar Piastri

A calm temperament like Oscar Piastri’s is very hard to find in F1, where the adrenaline is constantly peaking. Add to that championship-winning performance, and you have F1’s next Lewis Hamilton. In only his second year, he is nearly on par with Lando Norris, who has 4 more years of F1 experience. Even Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko has touted the 23-year-old as already being better than his teammate.

Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber, a former Red Bull driver, too thinks very highly of his client. “It’s been enjoyable working closely with him,” Webber told PlanetF1. “He’s obviously a very special talent. He knows what’s right for the future, to continue to unleash that talent. Potential is a word I hate. Potential is whatever potential is, but you need to make sure that you go out and he knows actions speak louder than words and that’s how he operates,” he added, emphasizing on Piastri’s go-getter attitude.

The Aussie managed his way to 4th in the drivers’ championships before F1 slumbered during the summer break. With 167 points to his name, he is only 10 points short of matching Charles Leclerc in P3. Comparing Ferrari and McLaren’s development graphs, Piastri could secure P3 easily in the next two races in Zandvoort and Monza, unless the weird injury boon works on Leclerc.