Piastri dreamed of Formula 1: 'That sacrifice is now paying off'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Oscar Piastri made his debut in Formula 1 this season. The Australian is Lando Norris' teammate at McLaren's team. Piastri wanted to reach F1 at any cost and also had to make difficult choices to do so, but the consequences are now paying off states the McLaren driver.
Piastri was wanted
Piastri won the Formula 2 championship in 2021 in dominating fashion in his debut year. At the time, the Australian was part of Alpine's junior programme, but the French team did not have a seat for 2022, so Piastri became a reserve driver with the team. Due to Fernando Alonso's sudden departure from Alpine, Piastri was promoted to driver for Alpine without his consent, something the Australian did not want at all. Indeed, not much later it turned out that the Formula 2 champion was already rounded up with McLaren, which is the team Piastri now drives for.
Piastri made sacrifices
To reach Formula 1, Piastri was willing to give up many important things. "I moved to the UK so young that I knew if there was any chance of reaching F1, that was going to be necessary to try and make it happen," Piastri saysin a video on Formula1's YouTube channel. Piastri was only 14 years old when he left Australia.
"That didn’t make it any easier, that’s for sure. But I think the sacrifice has paid off now. I achieved my dream of becoming an F1 driver. I try to get back to Australia when I can to see my family and friends and get a bit of sun," jokes Piastri.