Why Australian McLaren F1 star Oscar Piastri’s mum could be Formula One’s funniest fan
Aussie F1 rookie Oscar Piastri is fast becoming a hit with fans – and it’s clear he’s got every funny bone in his body from his mother, Nicole.
The wonderfully talented 21-year-old is in his first season on the F1 grid after replacing fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren in controversial circumstances last year.
After starting eighth on the grid in a brilliant qualifying run at last weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, fans have been thrilled with the youngster’s talent in what many describe as a complete ‘dud’ of a car.
The McLaren MCL60 is so far behind its rivals that many pundits are predicting a very difficult year for the Aussie, but he can count on some comic relief from his mum, who would prefer her son to help keep her nerves at bay by his fastest lap at the start of qualifying instead of the end.
“Well done Osc, but from now on can you do your fast lap at the start of qualifying so it’s not so stressful?xx,” she responded to McLaren’s post after setting his time in Saudi Arabia.
Incredibly talented Aussie rookie Oscar Piastri is fast becoming a hit with fans – but is he the funniest person in his family?
Nicole Piastri joked she ‘still needs to watch the kids play sports’ in front of the McLaren garage at Oscar’s first F1 race in Bahrain on March 3
Nicole has traveled all over the world during her son’s burgeoning career and posted another hilarious post from the season-opening Bahrain GP.
“Still going to watch the kids sport,” she captioned a photo of her outside his McLaren garage with a joking frown emoji.
Unfortunately for Piastri, despite that blistering qualifying run, the dire condition at McLaren meant he finished 15th at Jeddah after having to pit on the very first lap of the race due to damage to his front wing.
Pundits, former legends of the sport and fans then became confused about the fact that Piastri was faster than Lando Norris, despite the fact that the team chose not to leave him on a set of hard tires instead of putting him on new rubber like his teammate.
They even took the time to honor Nicole’s brilliant social media posts.
Oscar Piastri started his karting career in 2011 at the Oakleigh club in Melbourne
His F1 career got off to a diabolical start in Bahrain, with his much-maligned McLaren forced out with an engine failure
Piastri is prolific and immensely popular on social media, but one fan’s comment revealed that his mum is arguably the funniest F1 diehard on Twitter.
“We all know that Oscar won Twitter last year, but let’s not forget where he got it from,” one fan wrote, with screenshots of Nicole’s social media posts showing her lightly poking fun at her son.
‘Quarantine, day number: somewhere in the middle. I’ve seen an unhealthy amount of darts played on TV,” Piastri wrote in late 2020, before Nicole hit back and absolutely roasted her son for not answering her texts.
“Wait, so in the nine hours it takes you to respond to my texts, you’ve been playing darts????” she replied.
Just before Piastri moved to McLaren, Nicole made another light-hearted clip about her son not calling her back, before fiercely defending what he had already achieved in motorsport.
Piastri celebrates winning a Formula 3 race in 2020 – before winning the entire championship
“Knowing Oscar, I will work with the rest of the world to find out what’s going on,” she said The age last year.
“I think he has the determination and the ability and the intellect. I think he has everything it takes to get there and do a good job, but that’s just a very minor factor.
“There are many more things to consider when getting a Formula 1 seat: politics, money, availability of seats.”
She roasted him again in 2020 because he had a messy bedroom.
“Tonight’s cooking chronicle with Oscar: I lost my good knife. How do you lose a knife!?’ Piastri asked his 297,000 followers.
“Maybe check your bedroom floor…….” Nicole replied.
Oscar Piastri came third in an international kart race at the iconic Le Mans when he was just 15
Born and raised in Melbourne, Piastri made a dizzyingly rapid rise through the ranks after he began racing remote-controlled cars at the national level before starting his career in 2011 with Oakleigh’s karting club.
He won the Eurocup, Formula 3 and Formula 2 in successive years – and Nicole thinks he learned it all from her.
“Hi Oscar, I heard your mother is an excellent driver. Have you learned everything you know from her?’ she asked jokingly during a 2020 F3 Q&A session.
He’ll get the chance to show off his gear in front of home fans at the Australian GP at Melbourne’s iconic Albert Park circuit – and it’s likely Nicole will mark the occasion with a few more sentences.