Why Oscar Piastri risks looking like an 'idiot' this season

The year was 2022 and we had two of the top midfield teams, Alpine and McLaren, fighting to acquire Oscar Piastri's driving services.

The young Australian had set the junior category on fire by winning three titles in three seasons on his way to F1. Tired of waiting to get a seat at Alpine, he grabbed the opportunity offered by McLaren and jumped ships.

What ensued was a 'battle of custody' between Alpine and McLaren that culminated with the Woking-based squad taking over the services of the Australian.

Heading into the 2023 F1 season, Piastri is one of the more intriguing talents on the grid. He was pursued by multiple teams and his results in the junior categories have been nothing short of phenomenal.

Having said that, does the Australian risk looking like he made a mistake in his debut F1 season?

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McLaren might be looking forward to another disappointing season

McLaren arguably had one of the more underwhelming car launches. Andrea Stella, the new team principal, was quite honest in his assessment as he revealed he wasn't too happy with the car. There is already a major upgrade planned for the car that would make its way in around four races.

Now, to an extent, no team principal is ever truly happy with what the car has developed over the winter. There's always more that can be done and there's always an upgrade planned early in the season.

No team principal will however admit something like this publicly until the team missed something major during car development.

By the looks of it, the Woking-based squad has and if that is the case, the team is starting on the back foot already. This was supposed to be a season where McLaren charted its way back to the front of the midfield. The way that the team sounded during the car launch does not inspire much confidence on that front.

It's tough to look good against Lando Norris as a teammate

Oscar Piastri is a talented driver. There's hardly any doubt about it. His championship runs in F2 and F3 were especially impressive and deserved credit. Having said that, every talented driver needs time to get used to the sport.

F1 is the big league and for any young and talented driver in this day and age, there is some time needed to get used to racing at the highest level.

Be it any top driver on the grid right now, they had their 'bedding in' period before they fully matured and became a force of nature. Oscar Piastri's teammate Lando Norris was a runner-up in F2 when he graduated to F1. He took a couple of years alongside Carlos Sainz to fully mature and become one of the best drivers on the grid.

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc too spent their first year doing something similar. Piastri will be teaming up with Lando Norris, a driver that is performing at the highest level right now.

The level at which Norris performed last season compelled McLaren to look for Daniel Ricciardo's replacement at the team.

Can Oscar Piastri look good against Norris in his rookie season? He can, but the smart bet would be that he does it in short spurts. Overall, the season should see Lando Norris take the lead.

Oscar Piastri kicked away a much better proposition last year

Going back a year, one has to question Oscar Piastri's line of thinking when he was determined to move out of Alpine and join McLaren.

The French team beat McLaren handily last season and the gap would have been much bigger if not for the reliability woes. This season as well, although it's too early to say, there hasn't been anything negative coming out from the French squad.

The car launch was systematic and the team is hoping to close the gap to the front of the grid. In terms of early season indicators, McLaren is once again on the back foot and could find itself behind the team Oscar Piastri left last season.

Not only that, at the start of a driver's career, he should be pragmatic enough to know that the other driver in the car matters in terms of perception. In all likelihood, it is easier to look good against Esteban Ocon than it is to do that against Lando Norris.

Ocon is a brilliant driver but Norris belongs to the elite on the F1 grid. Oscar Piastri had the opportunity to go up against a less-than-elite driver on his F1 debut but he chose not to do that.

At this stage, Oscar Piastri is looking forward to a season where he will be driving a slower car than the one he declined last season. To make things worse, he will be measured against Lando Norris, one of the best drivers on the grid.

He could have been looking at an entirely different predicament had he chosen to stick with Alpine. The fact that he didn't and hence ended up in this situation could make him "look like an idiot" in F1.