McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri looking to have 'some fun' ahead of F1 opener

McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri is looking to have 'some fun' at the 2023 F1 season opener in Bahrain. The F2 champion replaced fellow compatriot Daniel Riccardo at the Woking-based team this year and will race alongside Lando Norris.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are to make up the youngest lineup on the grid in 2023. Despite their young age, both drivers are well worthy of their spots in the sport.

Piastri consecutively won the Formula Renault Eurocup, F3, and F2 titles but has been out of an active racing role for a year now, having served as a third driver at Alpine. Oscar Piastri claims that while he hopes for a good result at the upcoming season opener in Bahrain, he will try to learn as much as he can during his first race in the sport.

In an interview with McLaren, Piastri said:

“Hopefully a good result. I don’t really know yet. But yeah, I mean, for me personally, just try and learn as much as I can, get some good results, then that would be a bonus. But yeah, just go out and enjoy it, enjoy my first race for over a year and have some fun and get stuck in.”

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McLaren confident in Oscar Piastri's abilities

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella is confident Oscar Piastri won't suffer the same woes as Daniel Ricciardo at the Woking-based team. The F2 champion has replaced Ricciardo for the 2023 season and will start alongside Lando Norris later this year.

The entire F1 world could not understand why Daniel Ricciardo failed at the British team, given his past successful stint with Red Bull. The Australian was unable to adjust his driving style to suit that of the car. As a result, he was consistently outperformed by his much younger teammate Lando Norris.

Many have wondered whether Oscar Piastri will face similar issues. However, McLaren's team principal Andrea Stella claims the young Australian driver will be fine on his own due to his vast racing experience.

As quoted by GPFans, Stella said:

“In Formula 1, you pretty much get a very good idea from the numbers of what your competitiveness is. With the drivers, you deal with subtleties, the final percentage of your performance… So the journey we want to take with Oscar is also an independent journey."

He added:

"He’s certainly very talented, and we want him to use his references. References from the car, references from even what we learned with Daniel, and so on. We are quite adamant that he will have enough talent, process, [and] intelligence to find his own way, taking advantage of these references.”

The F1 world will keep a close eye on Oscar Piastri, the driver who played a significant role in the silly season last year. However, only time will tell if the young Australian lives up to all the hype he has generated.