Get to know the man who might be the coolest, calmest F1 driver in history

BBC News

22-05-2025

Oscar Piastri might just be the coolest Formula 1 driver there has ever been.The Australian exudes a sense of calmness that seems to permeate his entire being.He doesn't criticise his rivals. He doesn't shout on the team radio. He doesn't really do controversy.This quality has been notable since he made his debut in F1, just over two years ago. Now, seven races into a season that he could end by achieving his life's dream at the age of 24, it is proving to be one of his killer strengths as he navigates his first title campaign.Piastri says that this "comes quite naturally", but as in many cases in elite sport, it's the work that's done to hone the talent that makes the difference."Whether that's from my genes, I don't know," Piastri says. "But there is a lot of conscious effort on maintaining that. Maybe it comes a bit more naturally, but (it's) trying to sit in that nice zone where you can be calm and know what works for you."I'm still a human and I still have emotions, so I still have to control it. And that is a strength of mine."Ninety-nine per cent of the time I'm probably as calm as it looks. There's definitely moments in the car where it puts my emotions to the test. But it kind of goes back to the work you do, kind of putting things in perspective."
'There's not that much shell. It's just how I am'
Piastri's Zen-like personality, and the desert-dry humour that comes with it, is beginning to create him quite the following. But Piastri is a simple soul, and it comes as no surprise at all to hear that he cares not at all about the trappings of F1."I don't get bothered that much by kind of all the fanfare that goes on," Piastri says. "And I appreciate all the support that I get. But I'm here to drive race cars. I like driving race cars. I like going fast. I like trying to beat other people. That's what I'm here for."I feel like I'm a pretty simple person. And, yeah, my sense of humour is pretty dry, and I don't give much. But that's just me being me."In this sport, it's very easy to kind of get lost trying to be something you're not, and kind of fit to a mould."I feel like I can just be myself. And I think with more experience and once you have some good results and you become more comfortable, then you can come out of your shell a bit more. But for me there's not that much shell. It's just how I am."Piastri credits some of his mentality on having to make it to F1 from so far away.He moved to Europe as a 14-year-old. His father, Chris, stayed with him for the first six months, but then he returned to Australia and Piastri went to boarding school in England.Piastri says this made him "grow up quite quickly - you get a lot of life experience very early on"."It was definitely a big decision, but I never had to question it too much," he adds."My kind of way of looking at that was, 'OK, I want to become a professional racing driver. If I can do it in Formula 1, then that's even better. And the way of getting there is by going to Europe.'"So, again, removing the emotion from it to an extent, I kind of went, 'I want to achieve this dream of mine. This is how I get there.'"
The similarities with Verstappen
Piastri is leading the championship by 13 points from his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris heading into this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.His breakthrough year came in 2024, when he took his maiden grand prix victory in Hungary, and followed it up with a second in Azerbaijan, founded on the sort of brave, clinical, decisive overtaking manoeuvre that has become his trademark.Those incisive racing skills have paid off this year. He already has two of the best overtaking moves of the year to his name.A brave pass on Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari in the wet around the outside of the fastest corner on the track in Melbourne and - even better - on Hamilton again in the dust around the outside of the kink approaching the high-speed chicane in Saudi Arabia, a move that was critical in ensuring he took the lead from Verstappen around the pit stops in Jeddah.Is there a parallel between his unruffled personality and his decisiveness on track?"I don't know if it's a parallel," he says, "but they're certainly linked."In some ways, they're kind of opposites, right? My calm personality and some of my moves are on the aggressive side. But I do think that those moves come from being able to be calm and think clearly."Although Verstappen caught him unawares with his stunning pass into the first chicane in Imola on Sunday, Piastri has already shown he is not intimidated by the four-time champion's uncompromising approach to racing.Last year, in a BBC Sport interview, Verstappen gave a rare insight into his philosophy of racing, including saying: "When I race with someone, he will not be able to overtake me around the outside." But Piastri has already proved he has what it takes. He took the lead from Verstappen at the start in Jeddah, and did so again in Miami - with a move that started by going around the outside, and which provoked the Dutchman into braking too late, allowing Piastri to cut back to the inside."Even without Max saying that, just from watching him through the years and now racing against him, I already knew that," Piastri says. "And I feel like in all honesty, I have - maybe it's a slightly less brutal approach - but it's certainly not dissimilar."Max and I race each other in quite a similar way. Very robust, uncompromising, and I think we both push the limits to an extent."I always try to be fair, but it's a very fine line between good, hard racing and just overstepping the mark, and it's always difficult to find that balance. But I feel like the both of us have a lot of respect for racing each other. We know what to expect, especially after a few battles this year."
What's different this year?
What impresses about Piastri in battle is the preciseness. He doesn't waste energy. He doesn't go for a move that's not on, or try a half move that is not going to come off. He waits, and pounces when the moment is just right."I learned pretty early on in my career that normally when you do things half-heartedly in a race car, that's normally when things go wrong," he says."Whether that's pushing on a qualifying lap or especially overtaking someone, normally actually the best way to not get yourself in trouble is by just committing to things."That's obviously a bit of a mental hurdle to get over, but I feel like once I got over that in my karting days, then it's been more or less a strength of mine ever since."The racing skills have been apparent in Piastri from the start in F1. Where he has stepped it up this season is in his outright performance.Last year, Norris was unquestionably McLaren's lead driver, the one usually taking the fight to Verstappen. Piastri beat the Briton only four times in qualifying in the whole season, and his average lap-time deficit to the Briton was 0.147 seconds.This season, the score is 6-3 in Piastri's favour over all qualifying sessions, including the sprints, and now the average time advantage is 0.146secs for him.This is the foundation for his four wins, to Verstappen's two and Norris' one.How has he turned things around so effectively?"The team's done a great job with the car," Piastri says. "And the team's also done a great job with myself. That part goes both ways. We've found gains in every area. The driver being one of them."Just trying to chase performance in every category, basically. Last year what was hampering me was my qualifying performances, which I think ultimately came down to a slight lack of pace overall. And going about trying to find that pace has been definitely a challenging exercise, but obviously a very worthwhile one."The answer, he says, has been "trying to just find the last couple of hundredths (of a second) in every category you can. And they all add up."The first place you look at is obviously the driving and the data, and no two people will drive in an identical way. But normally there's some traits from one driver that are better than the other. And some from another that are better than your team-mate's."So Lando has obviously been a great reference for that, being very, very quick the whole time we've been together."I am maybe a faster driver. But I don't think it's because I can now do things that I couldn't do before. It's just that I'm able to tie it together a lot more."You work on the technical aspects of driving. Whether it's how you brake and turn, how you apply your steering lock. It's quite hard to teach yourself to drive uninstinctively, but it is possible."
Could a McLaren battle allow Verstappen in?
The contrast with Norris - who has spent much of the year so far explaining how the car does not behave in the way he wants, and how that has been holding him back - is obvious.But both McLaren drivers are in the title fight - Verstappen is currently third, 22 points behind Piastri. Does Piastri have any concern that Verstappen could sneak through the middle as he and Norris take points off each other?"It is a possibility, yes," he says. "But, on both sides of the garage here, we want to win because we've been the best driver, the best team, including against the other car in the team. You always want to earn things on merit and you want to be able to beat everyone, including your team-mates."So that gives Lando and I the best chance of our personal goals of trying to become drivers' world champion, while also achieving the main result for the team, which is the constructors' championship."If we do get beaten by Max, of course that would hurt, but we would know that we both had the same opportunity, we were racing everybody out there and that's just how it panned out."For us it's the most straightforward, the fairest way of going racing and that's what we've asked for."And does he think about the fact he can end the year as world champion?"A bit, yes," he says. "But I've also thought about it before this year as well."It's very easy to kind of just go: 'Yeah, that's the situation I'm in', but what I've been doing in the past 10 years, especially the past two years, has all been building to try and prepare for when I'm in this situation."And it's very easy for me to just go: 'Well, if I execute this practice session, execute this qualifying session, execute this race, naturally my championship's going to start to look pretty rosy.'"It's obviously still very early in the year, and once you get later in the season, the pressure ramps up."Potentially some of the decisions you make on the track start to change a bit. But for now, it's just about trying to score the most points I can and go out there and try and win every race."