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From the moment he started racing in F1 for McLaren at the start of 2023, it felt like it was only a matter of time before Oscar Piastri won a Grand Prix. There was something very special within this young racer from Melbourne, and last Sunday, on just his 35th outing, he delivered at the Hungaroring.

The biggest names in F1 all agreed that Oscar had the air of a future race winner about him, but so have many throughout F1’s 74-year history, and not all translate that into victories. Oscar joined us as an elite young talent, but he had plenty still to work on if he was going to convert his promise into silverware.  

In Hungary, Oscar fulfilled the next stage of his development by becoming a Formula 1 Grand Prix winner – the first F1 winner who wasn’t born in the 20th century since 53-year-old Luigi Fagioli won the French Grand Prix in 1951. Here’s how he achieved it and why there’s much more to come…

A day Oscar will “remember forever”

It was clear all weekend just how competitive the MCL38 was. Topping two out of three practice sessions, we emerged as the favourites among many ahead of Qualifying, and this form was translated into results as Lando and Oscar claimed the first McLaren front-row lockout since Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in Brazil, 12 years ago.

It wasn’t the smoothest of starts to the race for Lando, though, as he experienced a small glitch finding second gear during his acceleration from pole. This allowed Verstappen to slipstream alongside to his left, on the outside of the first corner.

Meanwhile, Oscar made a brilliant start to squeeze through into the lead on the inside, and Verstappen ran wide as they went three abreast. He kept his foot down and rejoined ahead of Lando, who had to back off and lost third place to Hamilton. He regained that quickly, but by the time Verstappen had handed second place back on the fourth lap, to avoid a penalty, Oscar was into his rhythm and more than three seconds ahead.

From here, our drivers took control of the race and led home our first one-two since 2021 after a superb performance. Oscar’s win made him only the fifth Australian to win a World Championship Grand Prix, joining World Champions Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones, his manager Mark Webber, and former McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo.

“A massive thank you to everyone,” Oscar said. “You can’t take days like these for granted, but I’m hoping this is the first of a few, or many. A day I’ll remember forever.”

Inevitable but not easy

Among Oscar’s successes in F1 so far is the ease at which he’s made everything look.

In 2023, despite taking up a reserve role in 2022 after winning in Formula Renault, Formula 3, and Formula 2 in successive years, he won the Sprint race in Qatar, resisting none other than World Champion Max Verstappen in his all-conquering Red Bull.

Few debut seasons had been more impressive - Lewis Hamilton’s in 2007 springs to mind, but barring the big win, Oscar’s was not far off those of Jackie Stewart in 1965 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1996. McLaren had another star on its books.

Oscar could not have had a more competitive teammate. Nearing his 100th Grand Prix, Lando had built up strong relationships with the team during four seasons of highs and lows, initially joining during a character-building period when success at McLaren was harder to come by.

Lando also had the benefit of working with the team for two seasons prior to his debut as part of our driver academy. Still, Oscar swiftly established his own strong relationships with both Lando and those in the background who work to provide them with competitive machinery. On his very first visit to the factory as a McLaren driver, he spent time introducing himself to every team member.

Quiet, considered, smart and respectful, he made friends and impressed with his performances and demeanour.

Developing his strengths and working on his weaknesses

Oscar’s fundamental pace was immediately strong in comparison with Lando, and he demonstrated a remarkable capacity for fast learning. If he lacked an edge in Qualifying, he studied hard. When he struggled with tyre management – one of the keys to F1 success with the Pirelli rubber – he worked at it until he solved those issues.

When we embarked on our upward trajectory with the upgraded MCL60 in mid-2023, Oscar often matched his more experienced teammate, the pair simultaneously climbing the grid. He finished fourth at Silverstone, fifth in Hungary, third in Japan – making him the first rookie to finish on the podium since 2017 - and second in Qatar. At Spa-Francorchamps, one of the fastest tracks in the calendar, Oscar took the fight to Verstappen by qualifying second to him for the Sprint race. He even led it for a lap before finishing second to the Red Bull driver. In Qatar’s Sprint, he went one better, taking pole position, and converted it to beat the World Champion by 1.871s to score his first F1 victory.

This year, he has continued his learning process. He took three eighth places and three fourth places in the early races as the team eagerly awaited an upgrade that would bring the MCL38 up to full 2024 specification.

Following that instalment, the results took another step forward, with Oscar finishing second in Monaco after an excellent drive and a close second again in Austria, which could have been first, had he not seen his lap deleted in Qualifying.

His British Grand Prix was another close one. He was only six-tenths behind race leader Lando when the team pitted the Briton on Lap 27. Staying out for an extra lap, Oscar dropped from second to sixth, but still recovered impressively to finish fourth, despite heavy rain.

A composed prescense in and out of the cockpit

The calmness he displays in the face of frustration is a cornerstone of his character and one of the reasons why he’s already so highly rated, and liked, inside and outside McLaren. The ‘we win as a team, and we lose as a team,’ can appear trite, but in reality, no expression in F1 is truer.

When mistakes are made, explanations are accepted, lessons are learned, and everyone moves on—no recriminations. Likewise, when only one set of new parts was available earlier in the year, he understood that they should go to Lando first and that he would get his as soon as possible.

Nothing, so far, seems to have got him rattled.

One of his most impressive characteristics is his quiet independence. When he arrived in F1, he didn’t feel the need to ask either Lando or his countryman Daniel Ricciardo for advice. His confidence in his own ability to learn as he went along is a trait familiar in many World Champions.

“I have worked with some very successful drivers in the past, and one characteristic is they are always a little unhappy,” Team Principal Andrea Stella says. “You are only happy when you see that you converge with what your ambitions are. I think it's very strong in a driver pursuing excellence. I see it as a characteristic in Oscar’s attitude.

“He doesn’t have nervous reactions. He doesn’t add tension in his comments. His comments are a genuine report of what happens with a car. You can trust what he’s saying, he’s not adding anything speculatively because he needs to promote himself.”

As he proved at the Hungaroring, Oscar is very happy to let his driving do the talking for him. On Sunday, it did just that, as he savoured the dream of winning in F1 that he had held since boyhood.