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Oscar Piastri is the latest prospect to be signed by McLaren. The driver replaces his compatriot Daniel Ricciardo in the team and will be making his debut in F1. There is a lot of hype around Piastri, so much so that there was almost a conflict between Alpine and McLaren when the Woking-based squad poached him from the Enstone-based squad.
This season, Oscar Piastri will be one of the three rookies in F1. Other than the Australian, Logan Sargeant, and Nyck de Vries (well, he has a race under his belt) will be making their debut.
When you look ahead to the 2023 F1 season, the prospect of Oscar Piastri becoming the "Rookie of the season" and scoring the most points is very high. Let's take a look.
Oscar Piastri: The Driver
It's not often that an F2 world champion comes into the sport with such hype. To add to this, it's not often that such a driver is being fought over. If we look back at the 2022 season F2 champion, Felipe Drugovich has not even got a seat in F1.
Having said that, Piastri deserves the hype that he's getting because of the way he's made his way through the junior categories. In his last three seasons before graduating to F1, Oscar Piastri won the Formula Renault Eurocup, followed by winning the Formula 3 championship and then graduating to the Formula 2 championship and winning that one as well.
This is the kind of run that we have often seen from drivers like Charles Leclerc and George Russell where these drivers made their way through the junior categories by achieving the best possible results. If we solely look at the results, it does make one understand why there is such hype around the McLaren driver and why he is in such demand on the grid.
Oscar Piastri's team - McLaren
Secondly, you have to take a look at the team Piastri is a part of. McLaren might not be achieving the kind of results it achieved in its heyday, but the team is still a strong midfield contender.
They finished the 2020 F1 season third in the championship and since then have hovered close to the front of the midfield more often than not.
Compare that to the teams Piastri's fellow rookies will be and you see a stark difference. De Vries will be driving for AlphaTauri and Logan Sargeant will be driving for Williams.
One will have to really strain his memory to find an instance of an AlphaTauri or a Williams finishing ahead of McLaren in the championship. In fact, the 2022 F1 season saw both Williams and AlphaTauri finish the season as the 10th and the 9th best team in the championship standings.
In terms of teams, Piastri is in a much better position and should hold a car advantage over his fellow graduates.
The competition
This is an interesting comparison as Piastri has made his way through the racing categories alongside Sargeant. The two drivers raced together in the Formula 4 championship, where Piastri was 2nd and Sargeant was 3rd, in the 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup, Piastri was 8th and Sargeant was 4th and in 2020, Piastri won the Formula 3 championship while Sargeant was 3rd.
It's been neck and neck between the two drivers and while many pundits might be sleeping on Sargeant, he's been just a peg behind Piastri on most occasions.
Comparing this with Nyck de Vries, the 28-year-old is almost 7 years older than his fellow rookies. It's hard to put a pin on how he compares to Piastri, but it is fair to say that the AlphaTauri driver does not have as much fanfare around him as Piastri does, nor does he have the kind of junior record that the McLaren driver has.
Conclusion
Looking at all the comparisons, it's safe to say that in terms of expectations and skill, Oscar Piastri is rated the highest amongst the three graduates. To add to this, at McLaren he will get a much better opportunity to score points as the car will be more competitive.
Overall, if we have to pick a driver that would in all likelihood end up with the most points this season and have the potential to impress the most, it's going to be Oscar Piastri. The driver is in a strong team to show how good he can be and it will be interesting to see how his rookie season unfolds.
