The Oscar Piastri trait shared with Max Verstappen which could spell trouble for Lando Norris

Michelle Foster 10 Aug 2023 9:00 AM

McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Having to fight for his racing career every step up the ladder, Oscar Piastri will be a bigger threat than Lando Norris in the years to come, that’s according to Allard Kalff and Kees van der Grint.

Although this season marks Piastri’s first year on the Formula 1 grid, the 22-year-old McLaren driver is already emerging as one to watch for the future.

在他的队友诺里斯在最近weeks, the Briton may have achieved the better result at Silverstone and again in Hungary, both races in which strategy cost Piastri, but it was the Aussie who stepped up onto the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix.

‘Oscar Piastri had to become champion every time to continue’

P2 in the sprint race behind Max Verstappen, his team boss Andrea Stella summed it up by saying Piastri is “making all this look simple”.

Viaplay analyst Kalff believes that’s because he’s had to fight his way through motor racing’s junior ranks with his next step only guaranteed by his results, not finances.

He reckons that puts him in the same category as double World Champion Verstappen.

“They are the same type, they have to fight for it,” Motorsport.com quotes Kalff as having told ‘In de Slipstream’. “He [Piastri] had to become champion every time to continue.”

His fellow pundit van der Grint agrees, saying that sets Piastri and Verstappen apart from Norris.

“Norris has a good social background, he had an easy childhood. He comes from a very wealthy family. There is nothing wrong with that, but that may mean that you are not interested in the latter tenth,” he said.

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Applause for Oscar Piastri’s manager Mark Webber

But being a fighter isn’t all that separates Piastri from his McLaren team-mate Norris, he also has former F1 race winner Mark Webber as his manager. And he’s proven he’ll do whatever it takes to see his driver succeed.

12 months ago Piastri and Webber shook Formula 1’s driver market when Alpine announced their reserve driver would race for the team this season only for Piastri to deny that as he had already committed to McLaren for 2023.

Alpine took the driver and McLaren to court but F1’s Contract Recognition Board ruled in favour of the Woking team, Piastri in and Daniel Ricciardo out.

“They are tough in the negotiations,” Kalff said. “They left Alpine because they wanted to go to McLaren. The contract [at Alpine] not well arranged? We are leaving.

“I have a lot of confidence in Mark Webber. He manages Piastri. Webber himself has made the wrong choice in his career, but I am confident that he is now making the right choices.”