Australian Grand Prix: McLaren racer Piastri aims to become first Aussie to win GP on home soil

Oscar Piastri is confident he can become the first Aussie driver to win the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.

“We’ll be good from the start of this year,” the McLaren driver said as he prepared for the season-opening F1 weekend.

The 23-year-old Piastri, who grew up living just a short drive from Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit, made headlines this week when he signed a new multi-year deal extension with McLaren beyond 2026.

And good fortune is expected to continue on-track for McLaren, with the team determined to start in Melbourne as it finished the 2024 season in Abu Dhabi – with the victory silverware.

Although Piastri is hoping that it’s him atop the podium rather than teammate Lando Norris.

“I think last season, the first few races is where we lacked a little bit of performance, and hopefully this year we can start off on how we ended,” Piastri said at a sponsor event Wednesday night for McLaren.

“So that’s our big aim. I think we’re pretty confident that we’ll be good from the start of this year. So I’m excited to get out on track in front of our fans.”

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McLaren is favoured to win the season-opening GP, having shown impressive long-run pace at Bahrain in pre-season testing.

“Bahrain did look good, yes. But you never quite know what everybody is hiding in testing — maybe we were hiding something, you don’t know,” he said. “So, we’ll wait and see. I think we won’t properly know until qualifying on Saturday.”

Qualifying will be a focal point this year for hopeful protagonist Piastri, with the Australian needing to be ahead of his teammate Norris for a better shot at race victories. Last year, Norris outqualified him 21-3 across the season.