Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri's rise looks smooth from the outside, but it came with one of the more awkward chapters in recent F1 driver-market history. Growing up in Melbourne, he raced karts before his family relocated him to Europe to chase the junior single-seater ladder — a path plenty of Australians have tried and few have finished. Piastri didn't just finish it, he obliterated it: Formula Renault Eurocup champion, then FIA Formula 3 champion in his rookie year, then FIA Formula 2 champion in his rookie year too. Winning a title in your first attempt at a category is rare. Doing it twice, back to back, made people inside the paddock take serious notice.

That run made him a hot commodity, and it's where things got messy. Alpine, as part of their young driver programme, had signed him and lined him up as their reserve driver with a view to a race seat. But when the moment came, Piastri and his management instead confirmed a move to McLaren for 2023 — a decision Alpine publicly disputed, leading to an unusually public contract dispute that eventually had to be settled independently. It was an uncomfortable way for a 21-year-old to arrive in the sport, but Piastri handled the noise with the same calm that would go on to define his driving.

His rookie season in 2023 was exactly what a first F1 year should be: careful, composed, occasionally spectacular, with a maiden sprint race win in only his home continent's near-neighbour, Qatar, hinting at what was coming. McLaren, like Norris's team-mate seat next to him, was building itself into a front-running outfit at the same time Piastri was building himself into a front-running driver, and the two curves met perfectly. His first full Grand Prix win followed in Azerbaijan not long after, and from there the results kept climbing — wins, poles, and a level of race-day composure that felt unusual for someone still so early in his F1 career.

What sets Piastri apart is how little fuss he makes about any of it. He's dry, understated, sometimes drily funny in interviews, and almost aggressively normal for someone who's already gone toe-to-toe with his own highly-rated team-mate and come out competitive. Being paired with Norris could have been intimidating for a newcomer; instead it seems to have sharpened both of them, McLaren enjoying the rare luxury of two drivers who can both properly win races.

Piastri is still one of the younger front-runners on the grid, but he no longer looks like a rookie finding his feet — he looks like a driver who was always going to get here, just via a messier route than most. The Alpine saga is a footnote now, remembered mostly because of how far he's come since.