Formula 1: Cool like a freezer: McLaren’s World Cup Stoyer Piatri

His mother wonders himself via Oscar Piatri. How can you be so stoic? How can you be so freezer cool? And that as an Australian! “Each of his trains is calculated. I have never experienced that he has taken a risk without thinking about it,” said Nicole Piatri once about her racing team, who has the potential for the Formula 1 world champion in McLaren. “He is unique.”

You can learn a lot about Oscar Piatri, the World Cup fourth when you listen to and watch Nicole to his mother. She brought it to her own popularity on the short message service X, which used to be called Twitter. Born out of necessity.

Piatri does not respond to mom’s news

Piatri left Australia at 14. At the beginning, father Chris, who made a lot of money for the automotive industry with a software company, remained with the son. But while the dad returned to Ms. Nicole and the daughters Hattie, Edie and Mae after a few months, Oscar remained in boarding school to continue his career in motorsport. Only at the beginning he did not react to his mother’s news.

So she started to hear about social media. “My plan was not to dominate the Twitter world by exposing it, but it was simply not easy to get in touch with him,” said Nicole Piatri. “But it worked.”

Oscar Piatri is a stoic, almost undeterred when you look at his career in Formula 1. This year it might even be something with the really big coup. This would also have to do with the fact that Piatri has now increased in qualifying.

Norris, the better driver in qualifying

“It’s about being razor -sharp in all the little things,” said the young man from Melbourne, who is always so unmoved on the outside. “We are all at the same level. Every little extra that you can get is the difference.”

2023 (7:15) and especially last year (4:20) Piatri was clearly dominated by his teammate and World Cup leader Lando Norris in qualifying. But his balance this year looks pretty good. In Australia, Piatri was second in the starting line -up, in China, where he also won his third Grand Prix, he even stood on Pole. And in the second, chaotic training of Suzuka he was back in front of Norris.

McLaren is happy about “target” on the back

McLaren also has what it takes this year to win the World Cup. Both at the driver and again at the constructor level. Red Bull and defending champion Max Verstappen, in turn, are struggling with a stubborn car.

This is the chance for the English traditional English team for the first time since 2008 with Lewis Hamilton again. “The target on our back is a nice thing. But for us it is still new,” said Norris about the hunt for McLaren. “As we are at the top, we know that the others are behind us. That spurs us on.”

Piatri and Norris: The only good driver pairing?

Norris sees McLaren in an excellent starting point. Which is not least due to the driver pairing. “We are the only team that currently has two good drivers,” said the Englishman. “That is the big difference.”

Piatri and himself rightly located Norris in the ranks of large team -internal rivalries, which also caused an explosive cockpits, such as Ayrton Senna against Alain Prost near McLaren in the late 1980s.

“We’re not that far yet, but it is the first time that we really compete against each other,” said Norris. “I am sure that there will still be many opportunities in which we will fight against each other.”

Questions about the team internal competition hardly let Piatris Puls rapid up. For this he seems too hardened. “I think it just depends on keeping my performance level,” said Piatri calmly. No surprise for mom Nicole.