Gr63 - Blog Posts

soyouaretired

1 week ago

George Russell and some angst

Oscar Piastri - The underrated prodigy

Now that Oscar is leading the championship, I think about how people seem almost surprised at his success in F1. How people seem to think that he came out of nowhere. When speaking about the golden children in F1 we talk about Leclerc in Ferrari destined to bring back glory to Maranello. About George Russell, who fought his way to a spot in the top team, who had to contend against the 7 time world champion, and managed to beat him. About Lando Norris, who stuck with Mclaren through everything, who was spoken of as their savior that would bring the team back to the top, consistently beating his team mates. The talk has been about who, of these three, would take the title first? And now, it looks like it might be none of them, but instead a young new talent, Oscar Piastri. Piastri, whose junior career trumps every driver that has ever been in the sport by winning not only F3 and F2 both in his rookie season, equaling Russell and Leclerc, but also winning FRECA the previous year, making it three rookie titles in three years. Piastri, whose manager is 9 time GP winner Mark Webber, a driver whose vengeance still drives him, making sure that his chosen successor wont make the same mistakes as he did. Piastri whose entrance in to the sport is the most memorable in a while, with two teams fighting over who would get him. And all of this is just the beginning, because the moment Oscar came to f1 you could see that he had talent. But, not only talent. Also, an uncanny ability to work on every problem he encountered. After the first year, he struggled with tyre management. In his second year, any tyre problems were gone. Last year he struggled with his qualifying. This year he has been one of the best qualifiers, taking two poles only 5 races in. And, after 5 races, where he has won 3, he leads the championship. Every year he keeps improving. He is not even in his prime yet, and he is beating everyone. The other drivers should be scared of this. Oscar might not be the most outspoken or charismatic driver off the track, but when he is in that car he can perform like no other. His quiet and calm demeanor, which makes people not see him as a real threat, works in his favor in the car. I can’t help but think about what Webber once said about Oscar… “I only knew I wasn’t good enough to win championships when I met Oscar [...] he reminds me of Schumacher”. It is only now that people start to realize who the real threat is, but those of us who have been paying attention aren’t surprised, not in the least…