Oscar Piastri reflects on long journey to F1 win in Hungarian GP, as he credits his team behind including Mark Webber.
After all the frustration of losing out on a F1 seat after his F2 triumph and the whole saga of moving from Alpine to McLaren, it finally bore the fruit when Piastri took the stop step in Hungarian GP, thereby becoming the latest to win a grand prix.
His F1 win means Piastri has won races in British F4, Formula Renault Eurocup, F3 and F2, which is all levels of single-seaters he has competed in. It wasn’t an easy win as despite him clearing teammate Lando Norris off the line, he dropped behind him strategically.
His last stint wasn’t good enough either to pounce on Norris which created some radio dramas. Eventually, the Brit slowed down to give back the lead to Piastri, who secured his first F1 win in just 35 outings, as he became the eighth youngest to grand prix win.
“Yeah, very, very special, a lot of Australian flags, actually, which was very cool to see,” said Piastri to media. “Yeah, it was an incredible moment. I mean, it’s always special when you get to stand on an F1 podium, but it’s a little bit nicer when you’re at the top of it, so very happy.
“Like I said, an incredible moment that I’ve been dreaming of for a very long time. I said my first dream in my career was reaching F1. The second one is winning a race. Yeah, I’m very, very happy and proud and not just of myself, but everybody that’s helped me get to this position. You know, going back to my family, firstly, of course.
“It took a lot of big decisions at a young age to chase the F1 dream. It’s very difficult to become an F1 driver by staying in Australia, so it meant some big decisions early in life. And, yeah, just very, very proud that, you know, those decisions have paid off and we’ve managed to make it worth it.
“And, yeah, of course, myself just incredibly happy to have achieved this moment. I would say it is, I don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet. And I mean, I’m not really the kind of person to get overly emotional. So, I don’t think you’re ever really going to see that from me. But, no, it’s an incredible feeling. Like I said, it’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid.
“We’ve had a couple of opportunities through the last few races that we’ve come very close to. And yeah, now to make it happen is an incredible feeling. But I’m sure with more time, you know, I think in Qatar last year, that didn’t fully sink in until probably the season ended. And I think with this, it will probably be a similar kind of feeling.
“Yeah, it’s just quite a cool feeling, but quite hard to, I guess, describe and know how to feel sometimes,” summed up Piastri, who had kind words for former Australian F1 race winner Webber too, who has helped shaped his career. He was not in Hungary to see him win, as he flew to London to support Mitch Evans in his Formula E title quest.
“I mean his influence has been massive on so many levels,” said Piastri. “I think firstly it’s important to say from Mark and Ann it’s been important on so many levels. I think behind the scenes they’ve done an incredible amount of work for me in my career, whether it was my junior career, getting me into Formula 1, working with McLaren, it’s been a massive influence for me. I think there’s always little tips and things like that.
“I mean, Mark had a successful career, The majority of it is about the bigger picture of things. And Mark obviously had a long and successful career in Formula 1. And I’ve said a few times, his hindsight of his career is my foresight. And he can keep me out of a few traps, a few holes that maybe he experienced in his career.
“His influence there is incredibly important. and you know I think also for myself. he’s been in a championship-winning team for a lot of his career and I think you know not just for myself but for the whole team, that’s a key thing to have,” summed up Piastri, who cleared that he wouldn’t be doing the shoey which Daniel Ricciardo has adopted.
The Australian had done shoey in front of the fans at Silverstone in a gesture mode, but Piastri wants to have his celebration in future. “The shoey is Danny Ric’s thing,” he said. “I mean, I’m going to get roped into it because I’m an Aussie, but I don’t know. I’ll try and think of something new. No, I think that’s gone and done.
“I know we did one at Silverstone last week, but I think we were a bit upset after the race there, so we needed some cheering up. Maybe we’ll do one in the plane on the way back. We can probably pay the cleaning fee now. But no, I’ll leave that to Danny Ric and that can be his legacy. I’ll create my own,” summed up Piastri.
Here’s McLaren trio on what transpired
Here’s how F1 Hungarian GP panned out
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact
