Damon Hill explains what Oscar Piastri is doing right now that’s ‘catching everyone by surprise’

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Oscar Piastri has outscored every driver on the Formula 1 grid in the last seven races and helped secure McLaren the lead in the Constructors’ Championship with his win in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Australian pulled off an impressive pass on Charles Leclerc to win the race, while the Ferrari driver failed to convert his pole position into a win for the fourth time this season.

Former F1 driver Karun Chandhok was impressed by Oscar Piastri’s ‘tremendous confidence’ with his overtake on Leclerc, while also being able to defend the lead for the rest of the race as teh Ferrari driver piled on the pressure.

Piastri is now within 32 points of teammate Lando Norris in the Drivers’ standings, although McLaren has stated that they are still going to back the Briton in the title battle with Max Verstappen.

Discussing Piastri’s win on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill highlighted one of the main things that has ‘catching everyone by surprise’ about the McLaren driver.

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Damon Hill says everyone in F1 ‘surprised’ by Oscar Piastri’s racer instinct

Piastri is often noted for being very calm when speaking to his engineer over team radio, rarely making any outbursts or statements when under pressure.

His win in Azerbaijan showed just how well he can cope with pressure from an experienced F1 driver in Leclerc, who pushed his tyres to the limit by the end of the race.

Hill believes Piastri is already showing what many drivers struggle to produce in the early stages of their career, which is catching a lot of people in F1 paddock by surprise.

“He’s shown that he has an instinct for racing. He’s got a racer’s instinct. The way he controlled Charles behind him at Baku lap after lap after lap, he just was on top of it and okay, it was stressful, but he did it. That his overtakes are just brilliant. I mean, they’re just totally catching everyone by surprise,” said Hill.

“He’s got incredible racecraft already. I think that’s already hardwired. He’s just applying what he really knows to F1 without any fear or sense of intimidation by the situation. He’s already got over that. He really has passed that point where you’re a rookie and you’re not wanting to make mistakes.”

Oscar Piastri ignored McLaren radio call in Baku

McLaren was worried about Piastri’s tyres at the end of the Azberbaijan Grand Prix, knowing that he already took out a lot of life at the beginning of his second stint to catch Leclerc.

The team told him to conserve his tyres but Piastri ignored their wishes and attacked the Monogasque anyway, later admitting in the cool down room that he gave himself a 50/50 chance of making the corner.

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His performances in the last few races have led some to believe that if McLaren manages to produce another car that can challenge for titles in 2025, it is likely that Piastri will be in the hunt along with Norris.

Marc Priestley expects this will cause headaches for McLaren and believes niether will end up being friends, having also experienced the same with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.