F1 team staff ‘very surprised’ by how quickly 25-race driver is improving this season

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Three races into the 2024 Formula 1 season and already the pecking order is beginning to be established between the top five and bottom five constructors.

Ferrari look much closer to Red Bull than last year and cashed in on Max Verstappen’s retirement in Australia last weekend.

Speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast, pundit and former driver Sam Power has admitted that one driver has already surprised his team with how much quicker he is this season.

Plenty of teams have taken steps forward this season – and a few might have gone backwards – but each driver is also working to develop their skills, whether they’re still new to the sport or have been on the grid for decades.

That pursuit for perfection never ends at this level of motorsport, with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton still looking to improve despite competing in more than 700 F1 races between them.

However, McLaren staff have reportedly been left very surprised by just how quickly Oscar Piastri is developing.

He’s only taken to the grid 25 times, but he’s already a Sprint Race winner and has a couple of podiums to his name too.

McLaren staff surprised by Oscar Piastri’s improvement

It says a lot about Piastri that in a season where more than half the grid are unsure if they’ll be driving in Formula 1 in 2025, he’s already confirmed his place in the paddock.

Less than 12 months after making his F1 debut in the papaya-coloured car Andrea Stella and Zak Brown tied him down to a new deal.

Given the wealth of talent not currently on the grid, that show of faith from McLaren highlights how good they think Piastri already is and how much better he could be.

Although he had to give up a place to Lando Norris in Melbourne that denied him a home podium, back-to-back fourth-place finishes are nothing to be sniffed at.

Piastri has already been tipped to be a future world champion which won’t surprise many people at McLaren.

In fact, his performances have been so good that he’s been touted as a potential replacement for Max Verstappen should the Dutchman decide he wants a new challenge.

Oscar Piastri going from strength to strength for McLaren

Discussing how the 22-year-old has started the season, Power said: “There’s a lot of people inside McLaren who are just getting very surprised by how quickly he’s picking up speed.

“I think this is the thing relative to Lando [Norris] how quick he is just assimilating all this knowledge, figuring out the car, eking out that little bit of performance.

“I mean the difference between him and Lando at this Grand Prix was very, very small mistakes and he gets that right, he’s going to be a genuine contender.

“And that’s the thing that’s impressed me most. Almost every session we have with those two, they are separated by hundredths of a second.

“It’s sort of like Lewis [Hamilton] and [Fernando] Alonso back in 2007 with McLaren. They are really on it.”

Oscar Piastri might be F1’s brightest young talent

Earning a spot on the grid is becoming more and more difficult in Formula 1, but Piastri looks set to be a permanent fixture in the paddock for some time.

He’s shown he’s more than capable of challenging drivers with a lot more experience and the gap between himself and Lando Norris is negligible.

It’s not every day that a current driver is put in the same bracket as Michael Schumacher and while he’s yet to win his first Grand Prix, it feels like it’s only a matter of time until he’s standing on the top step of the podium.

While some at McLaren might be surprised with how quickly Piastri is improving, his racing record before entering F1 points to a driver who can adapt extremely well to a new car.

He won Formula Renault, Formula 3 and Formula 2 in back-to-back-to-back years, taking no time at all to adjust to the step up in speed and opposition.

A year out of action while he was Alpine’s test driver barely affected him either and it’s no wonder he’s the best of the rest in the Drivers’ Championship behind the Red Bulls and Ferraris.