Oscar Piastri interview: the world champion hopeful schooled in England

Telegraph

3 hours ago

Haileybury school in Hertfordshire has produced some notable alumni over the years. Clement Attlee, the post-war Labour prime minister, attended the co-educational independent school. Poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling and playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn are Old Haileyburians. Film-maker Christopher Nolan and actor Stephen Mangan were also on the school's books.
In the world of Formula One, Haileybury can lay claim to one of the greatest: Sir Stirling Moss. The British icon, widely regarded as one of the finest motor racing drivers of all time, won more than 200 races in a variety of categories across a 14-year competition career.
Famously, though, Moss never actually won the Formula One world title, finishing runner-up on four occasions. Oscar Piastri is hoping to make up for that omission on the school's CV this year. 'That's the plan,' says the Australian. 'It's going OK so far. I feel like I've taken a step forward this year. I feel ready.'
Heading into this weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, it is intriguingly poised. Piastri, with five wins under his belt in 11 races, leads the championship by 15 points from his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris. By rights Norris should really be favourite for the title. The Briton is the more experienced driver and has been at McLaren for longer than Piastri. But Piastri is the odds-on favourite with the bookies.
That he is so unbothered by that fact is the reason he is so heavily fancied. Piastri just seems to be bullet-proof. Ice cold. Where Norris has blown hot and cold this season, making numerous mistakes in qualifying and shunting into the back of Piastri in Canada, the Australian has been rock solid, his race-craft impeccable.
Norris may still have him for outright pace, but Piastri is getting quicker and has definitely been the more consistent driver. 'I feel comfortable in the position I'm in,' he says when asked what it's like leading the Formula One world championship for the first time, as a 24-year-old.
'The way I look at it, if you're leading a championship, you're probably doing something right. And I feel like we have been doing quite a few things right. My ultimate performance has probably improved a bit this year, but I feel like I'm able to access it much more consistently so far. That's probably been the biggest thing.'
Piastri was always a quick learner. He recalls growing up in Melbourne, always wanting to be first at everything. 'Even in my schoolwork,' he says. 'I wanted to do it better than anyone, and also do it faster than anyone, which kind of makes no sense. I would do it as fast as I could, but it kind of came at the cost of some accuracy. I soon learnt it's better to be accurate because otherwise you spend 15 minutes sitting there doing nothing, and it's not very useful for you when you get your score back.'
There is actually rather an awkward postscript to the Stirling Moss-Haileybury connection. Moss later confessed to being unhappy at the school; bullied for reasons of his presumed Jewish origins. Piastri, though, says the school was the making of him. Moving 10,000 miles from Melbourne to the UK as a 15-year-old forced him to grow up. He spent four years as a boarder in Kipling House – England rugby player Nick Isiekwe was in the same house, although a few years older – and says it was a period in which he 'really developed'.
Growing up in Melbourne he had always been sports-mad. AFL, cricket, athletics, basketball. Motor racing allowed little time for any of those, but he still turned out for the school's 3rd XI. Piastri's teachers remember a diligent and conscientious student who juggled his extracurricular activities with his academic work with great maturity.
'Oscar never demonstrated anything other than exemplary humility and remarkable composure throughout his four years at Haileybury,' recalled one teacher, Andy Searson, adding that Piastri was 'capable of bowling a heavy ball with an intimidating run-up'.
The picture that emerges is one of a very grounded young man. Piastri met his girlfriend, Lily, at school when they were just 17, before they had even taken their A-levels (maths, physics and computer science, in Piastri's case, if you were wondering). They are still together six years later. 'Having that stability is nice,' he says of their relationship. 'Lily has been there from the start, from single-seaters to Formula One. A constant in what is quite a manic world.'
Piastri is so nice, so calm, so well-prepared – 'the kind of schoolboy who had his pencils sharpened in front of him on his desk' as Damon Hill remarked on the Chequered Flag podcast earlier this year – it is easy to forget what a killer he is in the car.
He appears bemused by the openness and vulnerability Norris displays on a weekly basis, even while praising it. 'Lando is a very open person,' he says of his team-mate. 'Speaking honestly, sometimes to his own detriment. But at the same time, it is a good quality to have. We are different people, but I do respect the way he goes about it.'
As for whether he is less minded to smash his team-mate given how scrupulously fair Norris is, how lacking in sharp elbows, he just laughs. 'Not really,' he says. 'My opinion is you can't give an inch to anyone, regardless of who it is – in racing or in sport. And that doesn't really change. Especially once the helmet goes on. I get on with Lando. But once the helmet goes on, for all 20 of us, there are no more friends.'
In this area, one senses the hand of Mark Webber, Piastri's compatriot who has been guiding his career from the start. Webber always had to fight his corner at Red Bull, forever battling for equal treatment in a team built around Red Bull wunderkind Sebastian Vettel. Piastri does not have that issue at McLaren. Webber has made sure of it.
'I think in terms of fighting my corner, it's been very, very valuable for me,' Piastri says of Webber's influence. 'Not that he has had to fight particularly hard in this environment. But just the experiences he had in his own career, being in a championship-winning team, fighting for a championship, there is a lot of hindsight which is very valuable for me.
'Some lessons you can only learn for yourself. But I definitely feel as if I've escaped a lot of [negative] lessons because of Mark's experience. Helping me avoid potential pitfalls. He thinks of questions either to ask me, or my engineers, or the team, before they occur to me. I feel like in the first couple of years of my career that was incredibly valuable and fast-tracked me to where I am now.'
One thing is certain, if Norris is to prevail this season, it is not going to be handed to him. Piastri may have grown up on the playing fields of one of England's top public schools, but he remains an Australian through and through. He is teak tough and like all Australian sportsmen, appears imbued with self-confidence.
Before he goes, I ask him for his predictions for the upcoming British & Irish Lions Test series. 'I don't actually follow the rugby that closely,' he says. 'Where I grew up, AFL was king.'
What about the Ashes this winter? 'Oh, that's a different matter,' he says, smiling. 'Hopefully, I'll get to a game. Australia are going through a bit of a tricky spell at the moment. But on home soil? I'd always back Australia.' On British soil this weekend, one suspects he will back himself just the same.