September 16, 2024 • 22 mins
Australian Oscar Piastri has clinched his second win of his young Formula 1 career, taking out the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. His team, McLaren, now lead the constructors' championship and the kid from Melbourne is living up to the hype that surrounded his entry into F1 last year.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Here at two Good Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the
land on which we record this podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
There were injurie people.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
This land was never seated, always was always will be.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Hello and welcome to two Good Sports sports news told differently.
I'm Abby Jellmy and I'm Abbe Jelmy. It is a
singular one of the two Good Sports this week as
our dear Georgie Tunney is still sailing around Spain, I believe,
although I did see footage of first singing the Lions
Club song as they got home, so she'd be very
excited that Brisbane are through to the final four of
(00:36):
the AFL Finals. But do we have an episode for you,
because loyal listeners remember in October last year Georgie and
I said there's a certain little Melbournie.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
And you need to keep an eye on Oscar Piastre.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
And if we said he was on the rise, then
my goodness, has he just arrived now? Because Oscar Piastre
has claimed his second F one win, holding on for
victory at the Azerbaijean Grand Prix. Now it was a
drama filled race, and if his first win in Hungary
was questioned given he had to rely on McLaren teammate
(01:09):
Orlando Norris giving up the race lead. This one just
felt different gone seemingly are the Papaya rules, Yes, that's
what they're called in F one circles, which are essentially
just McLaren's internal rules on how and when their drivers
are free to raise each other rather than just whole position.
Piastre started at the front of the grid in second
and did need a little help from teammate Lando Norris,
(01:30):
who was well down the order to avoid losing his
spot going through the opening pit stops.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
But whatever the rules are, no rules, it's working.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
McLaren are now leading the Constructors' Championship for the first
time since twenty fourteen, and the face of it is
our Australian Oscar Piastre, and he says, I think considering
where we started when I joined the team last year,
we were literally last, and now we're leading the world Championship.
It's a credit to the team for the turnaround of
the last eighteen months and they've improved to me as well.
(02:01):
It's a massive team effort and I'm excited to see
what the future holds well, Oscar, so.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Are we and listeners.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
You know Georgie and I hate to say I told
you so, but we told you so. We were so
excited to do a deep dive into how he rose
through the ranks at such a young age to find
himself on the grid. So please take a listen to
this little bit of a reheated episode because we think
you'll enjoy it. George on today's show. Some sports people
(02:40):
can pinpoint the exact moment they knew all they wanted
to do was to reach the pinnacle of their sport. Remarkably,
that's not the case for Australia's most successful athlete on
the world stage right now?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Who am I talking about?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Sam Kay?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Okay, well she is very success but.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Right now, but right now in terms of global sports
and who is performing? Oscar Pastre, Oscar pstre Pistre pstrest.
He loved cars and racing the remote control variety from
as early as six years old with his dad. Which
six year old and remote control cars. Don't think about
what you were doing at six because it wasn't that cool.
(03:15):
No move to Europe at fourteen years old. Nuts from
this sunny brighton east of Melbourne to dreary, dreary Europe
to pursue elite go karting while also continuing his schooling.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And then he was set up to be an F
one superstar. Few hop skips and jumps to get to
that stage. Basically, if it was on four wheels and
it went fast, he was about it. He didn't say
it was his life, but he was about it. He
was intrigued by it. It was an obsession to him somewhat.
He was a grid kid at the Melbourne Grand Prix.
(03:51):
Oscar Piastre was one of those little wholesome kids. He
was there and now he gets to walk out with
the kids on F one tracks around the world, which
is crazy. When he was fourteen, he moved to Europe
and so he started a boarding school so that he
could take his go karting.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
More seriously, well, his dad.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Moved with him for the first six months. Okay, and
a lot of this and a lot of motorsport. The
first thing that you hear drivers say is it's a
very expensive sport. A lot don't make it unless and
I think we're going to touch on his mum later,
but unless you have parents that are supportive enough financially
as well as emotionally to let your kid go at
(04:31):
fourteen years old, and let's be honest, fourteen year old
boys aren't like fourteen year old girls.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Fourteen year old boys may as well before.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yes, and we actually And it's funny because you listen
to some of the interviews that Oscar Piastre has done
now and he still feels like a kid that's just
moved out of home. He's learning how to cook, he
burns things, he tries to dry his clothes using an oven.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
But he had to grow up very quickly.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
But from the sounds of it and from his results,
he was always born to be a star. Yes, yes,
because even one in the remote control world when he
wasn't taking it seriously. You have to go karting and
just started winning.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
One that and then made it into F three, won that,
then went to F two, which is an upgrade from
F three.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Won that, so champion, champion knocking on the door.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yes, and basically for everyone who doesn't know, correct me
if I'm wrong, jelmy, But my understanding of the difference
between F three, F two, F one is that F
two and F three are essentially slightly more of a
level playing field. I am using air quotation marks in
that the cars themselves generally are either exactly the same
(05:37):
or very similar.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
There if you don't have aparity that you see in
F one.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yes, you have the same group of engineers working on
all of the cars, so there's less customization possible. In
F one, of course completely different where it's like you
need the car. If you have the best car, you're
probably gonna win. It doesn't necessarily always come down to
your strength as a driver or your racecraft, whereas an
(06:01):
F three and F two it really is pretty.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Much all about the racecraft, and F two is where
F one drivers come from. Yes, usually if they're making
their way through the ranks based on skill. We know
that it's a really bizarre world. It's not like you
need to qualify, you just need the team.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
To pick you.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yes, so there is a little bit of nepotism where
if your dad hypothetically owns the team, potentially you you
might have a bit of a leg up. Although in
saying that Lanstroll has definitely proven himself as a driver,
but it does help that Lawrence strolls like, you want
the team up, buy the team, So you do see
a little bit way and we see that a little
bit in the V eights, which again Oscar Piastre growing up. Initially,
(06:39):
you say, did you love the F one? He's like, yeah,
but the races were really hard to watch in Australia,
which is fair, very fair, because if you're a young kid,
you're not watching at four am, two am. So he
watched a lot of the V eights and loved the
V eights and used to watch the F one on repeat.
But essentially he loved anything with four wheels. He wanted
to get involved, as you said, George, he was a
(07:01):
champion in the F two. Then in twenty twenty two
he's like, right, oh, ready for my spot on the
grid team there isn't one, so Alpine that had put
a lot into his development, he becomes their third driver.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Alpine, which used to be known as Reno.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
So he is not on the grid, but he could
have been, because bizarrely, if you win F two you
can't go back.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So weird.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It's so complicated, like it's quite a convoluted progression. I
guess right, it's it's not a straightforward path. But the
takeaway is that Piastre, at least for us, and I
guess for everyone really in the motorsport community has been
earmarked as this generational talent for a really long time,
(07:44):
so much so that a former Australian racing great Mark Webber,
remember him Webber v Vettel, that was like everywhere when
we were just think of.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
A jaw line and you've probably got the right bloke
think of it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
The one think of a jaw line. Him racing with
the dodge on deck.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
That's him, That's it's some sort of stubble always involved,
but that's that's Mark Webber.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And he is now Oscar Pstre's manager. So him with
all of his connections and started managing him at eighteen.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Yes he's like I will get on the winning cart,
thank you, thank you your mind.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And he was able to, with all of his connections
start having those conversations that would put Pastree in the
F one conversation because as you say, it's not always
just results based.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
And we also think as Australians we get hyped about
Australian talent, so sometimes we can blow them up larger
than what they're spoken about on the international stage. That's
simply not the case for Oscar Pastre. It is a
truth universally acknowledged that this kid is the next big talent,
so much so that you can see all the big
(08:48):
talking heads talk about it on Everyone's favorite show, Drive
to Survive.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It is everyone's favorite show.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
It is everybody's favorite show.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So and if you haven't, I was late to the
Drive to Survive party, I'll be the first to admit.
But then when you discover something late and there are
five seasons to get through, I'll be surprised if my
son is an race card driver because I was heavily pregnant,
sitting on the couch and just obsessed, absolutely obsessed. And
you get to season five, episode five, and you have
(09:19):
the Christian Horners of the world saying this kid is
going to be the next Max for Staffan.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Now Christian Horner to quantify that is the head of
Red Bull Racing. He is also mister Jerry halliwell, I
know she's changed her name to Jerry Horner, but whatever,
it's Ginger Spice.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
There is a lot of Spice girls on Netflix at
the moment.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yes, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
With their less famous husbands. Yes, yes, I said, I
went there.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And he essentially is in charge of Red Bull, which
is the team the team.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
They'll be glad one they are they just flinched.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Toto Wolf from Mercedes is just somewhere how to cult
shiver going say what is that?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
But this is what Drives to Survive has done, is
that we can say Christian Toto in conversation and you
believe that other people know who you're talking about exactly
because it brought these big names in F one that
aren't the drivers, they're the team managers, and yet they
have become part of pop culture.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And we'll talk about what it's done for F one
down the track.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
But in season five, which is August twenty twenty two,
Fernando Alonso leaves Alpine for Aston Martin.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
And remember, at this time Alpine has Fernando Alonso, Esteban
Oconn and Oscar piastre Is waiting in the wings, cannot
get a seat because he is the reserved driver.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
But waiting in a very well financed wing where they
are doing a lot to develop him, believing that he
will be their next star. Yes, and looking at their
stable of talent, being like Fernando a Lonzo's forty one
but still driving at his peak. But how great, Yes,
look look at our stacked stable of drivers. So Team
Alpine find out about Fernando leaving via Media. Alpine then go, oh,
(10:59):
that's unfortunately. We believe that we were in good faith
conversations with Alonzo. But anyway, They then tweet and I
wish I could describe this better. Are shaking hands of
most between Eseva Nocon and Oscar Piastre, and it essentially says,
after four years as part of the family, Piastre has
(11:20):
been announced in the race seat alongside Esva Oconn. So
they're essentially going, well done, young man, you've developed line
up confirmed.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yes, is in this Yes, be like sad, so sad
we've lost Alonso, but my god, I'm so glad that
we've spent four million dollars developing this one.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Because we forget that this they're not talking in Australian
so brilliant. You're young thing, you're twenty one and you're
on the greed wa a time.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yes, and everyone's going, oh, I mean makes sense, well
done LP in great great news.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Slash change McLaren Daniel Ricardo just not clicking, which is
really hard for Australians because he is, as per this series,
the star the protagonist can't leave. But he also apparently
isn't driving well. Yes, and it wasn't for a short
period of time, it was for a longer period of time.
And he's such a tested experience driver. He's had amazing success.
(12:12):
And he also had a podium for McLaren. Yes, not
a podium he won, he won the Italian GP. So
this is all happening in the background. McLaren been like, ooh,
who do we get?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
What do we do? And they're like, willis pstre available.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
The afternoon that Alpine had put out their handshaking tweet
being like welcome Oscar Pstree Oscar ps tree tweets. I
understand that without my agreement, alpinef one have put out
a press release this afternoon that I am driving for
them next year. This is wrong and I have not
(12:44):
signed a contract with Alpine for twenty twenty three. I
will not be driving for them next year. And we
are talking about a twenty one year old from Australia
all of a sudden, on a very very big, very
very public show, getting hammet for his character.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yes, so essentially Oscar has gone from a reserve driver
to confirmed that he's going to be get a seat
and be on the F one circuit. However, it's not
with his junior club shall we call them in Alpine
he has backstabbed for one of a better word, that
team and has moved to McLaren because, to be honest,
I think Ballsy moved from him. He knows that he
(13:26):
wanted to be on that grid, he wanted to be racing,
and he saw that future with.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
McLaren and he went, yeah, that's what I want.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
And at the time, the context of it all is
Alpine and McLaren are like fighting for fourth and fifth
in the Constructors Championship, which essentially means you have to
have you both your drivers performing well and there's a
big difference between them, but they're all at loggerheads. The
world implodes and the next episode opens up and he's
going for a jog in the south of France with
Mark Webber and you just think this kid is living
(13:55):
the most ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Life as Amina who puts clothes in an oven to drive.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I know, so again we'll fastrack through this.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
But Daniel Ricardo then releases a selfie video in collaboration
with McLaren being like, I'm so sad We've tried it
gives conscious uncoupling. It does because he was like, we've tried,
it's just not working. We're really sad about it, but
hopefully going forward. But you definitely get the impression that
Daniel Riccardo wasn't the one doing the breaking up.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah. Nah nah, he got sacked.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
So Lando Norris there, and it also he outshone Riccardo.
It has to be said. He had seventy six points
to Ricardo's nineteen.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So he is a McLaren driver, yes.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
And also the darling so Lando Norris is there and
he needs a teammate, he will presumably step up and
beat the lead driver lead driver. Yeah, then sits down
Oscar Piastre and he goes, hi, I'm back as a
McLaren driver now.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Who everyone thinks, rightly or wrongly, has questionable character in
Oscar Piastree right.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Or at the very least Alpina throwing every bit of
mud and hoping it sticks. Yes, yes, as in looking
down the barrel on drive to survive, saying I would
have thought that he had more integrity From this, I
cannot understand a lack of loyalty. It starts, it's giving
very Dan Andrews. It starts as four million. At one
point it's five million, when they're like, we should sue
for five million dollars because essentially we were putting funding
(15:19):
into this kid with the belief that there was in exchange,
and that exchange was that eventually he would be a
driver for us. And he has pulled the rug out
from under us via a tweet. It's all very sassy
if one, and there's sort of a chat and McLaren's like, oh, well,
you can't be doing that.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
That'll look bad.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
So they're trying to sub everything around, and they end
up going with Pierre Gasli instead of Danny Riccardo, and
then Dan is left out.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
In the cold. Fuck them all.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Fuck I believe the actual technical term that Dan uses.
But through all of this, this is how the world
was introduced in many ways the non motorsport world, because
the motorsport world had been talking about him for a
very long time.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
But that was the way that a lot of.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
People that are consuming F one casually via this hugely
successful Netflix series, was introduced to a twenty one year.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Old yes he was twenty one at the time.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
And then pressure, the pressure, and also just the questions
of like, okay, so you're apparently this big shot, right,
You've made this big shot move in deciding that you
want to be at McLaren. You want to take that
driver's seat. Okay, sure, prove it, show us what you
can do.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
And he has in his rookie season, after a slower
than desired start that the car wasn't great at McLaren,
they've ben had some upgrades.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
And upgrade they have. He's got back to.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Back podiums, one of them ahead of his teammate Lando Norris.
But all of a sudden he is in the echelon
of your Danny Ricardo's, your Mark Webbers. There's only been
six other Australians to be on a podium before now
in this enormous stage that so many try and don't
get to, and he is starting to establish himself and
(17:02):
the headlines at the moment if you read it's almost
like McLaren have a headache because is PS three actually
going to overtake Norris.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
The term teammate is so loose in.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
F one, and this is something that a mate is suggested,
almost a silent mate.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Because the fact that the only person that you know
that you should be beating is your teammate. Because they
are in the same car. Everyone else you can make
excuses for, but when there is qualifying and you're not
going faster than them, they are simply better than you.
So you need to find someone who's happy to play
(17:36):
almost second fiddle, but be very good at.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
It, which I am not sure pstre would be.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
No.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I think that he has shown enough killer instinct, and
I'm not saying that as a bad thing. I think
you have to be cutthroat in this industry. F one
is brutal, brutal, but I think that he's shown enough
killer instinct that he wouldn't be happy being number two.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
From what we've learned from researching, this is his kind
of If he wasn't an F one driver, he'd be
going to UNI and studying engineering.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
That sort of gives you.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Grew up in Melbourne, loves his cricket, loves different sport.
We also know that his mum is everyone's mom.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I want his mum, Nicole is Nicole past I want
her to adopt me.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
So she tweets for Australia, and by tweets, I mean
ex's for Australia, so much so that when he got
an extension announced with McLaren, she goes, what are we
doing this? For another three years there was another one
that is she's like, right, O, race control, wrap this up.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I've got pilates in the morning.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That was when he got on a podium or onon
a sprint or something.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I'd just be like, mom, put the phone down. But
she's great, she's amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And also she's now entered into the zeitgeist as well,
because Oscar Piastre gets asked about his mom's tweets. Yeah,
because and he's like, oh god, yes, yeah, she's good.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah, she's she's a fan.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I guess given Australian Lark, it's giving Australian Larkin. And
after we've lost Daniel Ricardo, I know he's still technically
on the circuits, got broken up, whatever, But now that
we've lost him, we've just it's so wild that we
have replaced him with another Aussie Larkin that we can
potentially get behind who may have better racecraft and we
could be seeing even better results.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
We're starting to see a generation of athletes that were
born in the two thousands that their entire professional life
is there and documented for you. He's even got Oscarpiastri
dot com where you can go on and learn in parts.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
About him, especially in F one. Yeah, and that is
the Drive to Survive effect.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Talk about the numbers well after this show.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So this show has been going for five seasons now.
In twenty twenty one, Formula one reported a global TV
audience of one and a half billion billion for the races. Now,
I will guarantee you more people have watched Drive to Survive.
And the change in the audience that we have seen
consuming F one and who are now F one nerds
(19:57):
can be traced back to this show. Because it's a
more diverse audience. You are getting four times the number
of female eyes on this sport than there ever has
been before. And that is because of this reality show.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
And do you know why the drama the drama women
don't necessarily love and we're genderizing this because it's just
the way it is. That's the way the audience split
has always been for motorsport. It's more male dominant than female.
Women haven't fallen more in love than watching cars go
round and around. Yeah, they've fallen in love with the
fact that Fernando A. Lonzo says I'm leaving via the media. Yes,
(20:32):
this tweet comes out, it's drama. It's reality TV drama.
Forget housewives. F one for me is not your top
tier sport that women tend to be into until now,
and it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
It's also cool that the Formula one as a body
and as a sport has embraced it, like they haven't
gate kept that. They've opened it. They've opened themselves up
right and they've embraced it and been like, yeah, you
know what, this is sport which we have held at
the top echelon when it comes to money. It's for
the rich and famous. Hello monarka monarch. But then it's like,
(21:09):
actually everyone can enjoy this.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
It has changed the way that sport is documented and
the way that fans are engaged.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And the number one storyline for season six guaranteed is
going to start our little lossie that could.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
It is, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Oscar Piastre, He's just going to keep on going because arguably,
do you think he is Australia's most successful athlete right
now on a global stage?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yes, And I would say that as someone who for
work reads sport headlines. The fact that he has back
to back podiums and the people that are in the
conversation around him are your Maxistappan, Orlando Norris and how cool,
so cool, And he's got so long to go. He
can do this until his mid forties. But the question
is do you like him?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I love him.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I think that the more we get to see him,
the more that he's platformed. I'm hoping that more of
his personality comes out, the mean personality. I'm here for
the mean personality. I'm here for him giving side eye
to people and backing it up with results.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
I told you at age well we seem like geniuses,
don't we. But thank you for listening to Two Good
Sports sports News told differently.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
We'll be back on Monday, not Tuesday, Monday, with a
special Brownlow episode going through the deep dive of some
of the best and let's be honest, most memorable moments
from football and AFL's Night of Nights.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
But again, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Please do follow us at two Good Sports Podcasts and
until next week, be a good sport
Here at two Good Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the
land on which we record this podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
There were injurie people.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
This land was never seated, always was always will be.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
Hello and welcome to two Good Sports sports news told differently.
I'm Abby Jellmy and I'm Abbe Jelmy. It is a
singular one of the two Good Sports this week as
our dear Georgie Tunney is still sailing around Spain, I believe,
although I did see footage of first singing the Lions
Club song as they got home, so she'd be very
excited that Brisbane are through to the final four of
(00:36):
the AFL Finals. But do we have an episode for you,
because loyal listeners remember in October last year Georgie and
I said there's a certain little Melbournie.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
And you need to keep an eye on Oscar Piastre.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
And if we said he was on the rise, then
my goodness, has he just arrived now? Because Oscar Piastre
has claimed his second F one win, holding on for
victory at the Azerbaijean Grand Prix. Now it was a
drama filled race, and if his first win in Hungary
was questioned given he had to rely on McLaren teammate
(01:09):
Orlando Norris giving up the race lead. This one just
felt different gone seemingly are the Papaya rules, Yes, that's
what they're called in F one circles, which are essentially
just McLaren's internal rules on how and when their drivers
are free to raise each other rather than just whole position.
Piastre started at the front of the grid in second
and did need a little help from teammate Lando Norris,
(01:30):
who was well down the order to avoid losing his
spot going through the opening pit stops.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
But whatever the rules are, no rules, it's working.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
McLaren are now leading the Constructors' Championship for the first
time since twenty fourteen, and the face of it is
our Australian Oscar Piastre, and he says, I think considering
where we started when I joined the team last year,
we were literally last, and now we're leading the world Championship.
It's a credit to the team for the turnaround of
the last eighteen months and they've improved to me as well.
(02:01):
It's a massive team effort and I'm excited to see
what the future holds well, Oscar, so.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Are we and listeners.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
You know Georgie and I hate to say I told
you so, but we told you so. We were so
excited to do a deep dive into how he rose
through the ranks at such a young age to find
himself on the grid. So please take a listen to
this little bit of a reheated episode because we think
you'll enjoy it. George on today's show. Some sports people
(02:40):
can pinpoint the exact moment they knew all they wanted
to do was to reach the pinnacle of their sport. Remarkably,
that's not the case for Australia's most successful athlete on
the world stage right now?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Who am I talking about?
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Sam Kay?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Okay, well she is very success but.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Right now, but right now in terms of global sports
and who is performing? Oscar Pastre, Oscar pstre Pistre pstrest.
He loved cars and racing the remote control variety from
as early as six years old with his dad. Which
six year old and remote control cars. Don't think about
what you were doing at six because it wasn't that cool.
(03:15):
No move to Europe at fourteen years old. Nuts from
this sunny brighton east of Melbourne to dreary, dreary Europe
to pursue elite go karting while also continuing his schooling.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And then he was set up to be an F
one superstar. Few hop skips and jumps to get to
that stage. Basically, if it was on four wheels and
it went fast, he was about it. He didn't say
it was his life, but he was about it. He
was intrigued by it. It was an obsession to him somewhat.
He was a grid kid at the Melbourne Grand Prix.
(03:51):
Oscar Piastre was one of those little wholesome kids. He
was there and now he gets to walk out with
the kids on F one tracks around the world, which
is crazy. When he was fourteen, he moved to Europe
and so he started a boarding school so that he
could take his go karting.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
More seriously, well, his dad.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Moved with him for the first six months. Okay, and
a lot of this and a lot of motorsport. The
first thing that you hear drivers say is it's a
very expensive sport. A lot don't make it unless and
I think we're going to touch on his mum later,
but unless you have parents that are supportive enough financially
as well as emotionally to let your kid go at
(04:31):
fourteen years old, and let's be honest, fourteen year old
boys aren't like fourteen year old girls.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Fourteen year old boys may as well before.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yes, and we actually And it's funny because you listen
to some of the interviews that Oscar Piastre has done
now and he still feels like a kid that's just
moved out of home. He's learning how to cook, he
burns things, he tries to dry his clothes using an oven.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
But he had to grow up very quickly.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
But from the sounds of it and from his results,
he was always born to be a star. Yes, yes,
because even one in the remote control world when he
wasn't taking it seriously. You have to go karting and
just started winning.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
One that and then made it into F three, won that,
then went to F two, which is an upgrade from
F three.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Won that, so champion, champion knocking on the door.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yes, and basically for everyone who doesn't know, correct me
if I'm wrong, jelmy, But my understanding of the difference
between F three, F two, F one is that F
two and F three are essentially slightly more of a
level playing field. I am using air quotation marks in
that the cars themselves generally are either exactly the same
(05:37):
or very similar.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
There if you don't have aparity that you see in
F one.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yes, you have the same group of engineers working on
all of the cars, so there's less customization possible. In
F one, of course completely different where it's like you
need the car. If you have the best car, you're
probably gonna win. It doesn't necessarily always come down to
your strength as a driver or your racecraft, whereas an
(06:01):
F three and F two it really is pretty.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Much all about the racecraft, and F two is where
F one drivers come from. Yes, usually if they're making
their way through the ranks based on skill. We know
that it's a really bizarre world. It's not like you
need to qualify, you just need the team.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
To pick you.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Yes, so there is a little bit of nepotism where
if your dad hypothetically owns the team, potentially you you
might have a bit of a leg up. Although in
saying that Lanstroll has definitely proven himself as a driver,
but it does help that Lawrence strolls like, you want
the team up, buy the team, So you do see
a little bit way and we see that a little
bit in the V eights, which again Oscar Piastre growing up. Initially,
(06:39):
you say, did you love the F one? He's like, yeah,
but the races were really hard to watch in Australia,
which is fair, very fair, because if you're a young kid,
you're not watching at four am, two am. So he
watched a lot of the V eights and loved the
V eights and used to watch the F one on repeat.
But essentially he loved anything with four wheels. He wanted
to get involved, as you said, George, he was a
(07:01):
champion in the F two. Then in twenty twenty two
he's like, right, oh, ready for my spot on the
grid team there isn't one, so Alpine that had put
a lot into his development, he becomes their third driver.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Alpine, which used to be known as Reno.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
So he is not on the grid, but he could
have been, because bizarrely, if you win F two you
can't go back.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So weird.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
It's so complicated, like it's quite a convoluted progression. I
guess right, it's it's not a straightforward path. But the
takeaway is that Piastre, at least for us, and I
guess for everyone really in the motorsport community has been
earmarked as this generational talent for a really long time,
(07:44):
so much so that a former Australian racing great Mark Webber,
remember him Webber v Vettel, that was like everywhere when
we were just think of.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
A jaw line and you've probably got the right bloke
think of it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
The one think of a jaw line. Him racing with
the dodge on deck.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
That's him, That's it's some sort of stubble always involved,
but that's that's Mark Webber.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And he is now Oscar Pstre's manager. So him with
all of his connections and started managing him at eighteen.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Yes he's like I will get on the winning cart,
thank you, thank you your mind.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
And he was able to, with all of his connections
start having those conversations that would put Pastree in the
F one conversation because as you say, it's not always
just results based.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
And we also think as Australians we get hyped about
Australian talent, so sometimes we can blow them up larger
than what they're spoken about on the international stage. That's
simply not the case for Oscar Pastre. It is a
truth universally acknowledged that this kid is the next big talent,
so much so that you can see all the big
(08:48):
talking heads talk about it on Everyone's favorite show, Drive
to Survive.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
It is everyone's favorite show.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
It is everybody's favorite show.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So and if you haven't, I was late to the
Drive to Survive party, I'll be the first to admit.
But then when you discover something late and there are
five seasons to get through, I'll be surprised if my
son is an race card driver because I was heavily pregnant,
sitting on the couch and just obsessed, absolutely obsessed. And
you get to season five, episode five, and you have
(09:19):
the Christian Horners of the world saying this kid is
going to be the next Max for Staffan.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Now Christian Horner to quantify that is the head of
Red Bull Racing. He is also mister Jerry halliwell, I
know she's changed her name to Jerry Horner, but whatever,
it's Ginger Spice.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
There is a lot of Spice girls on Netflix at
the moment.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yes, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
With their less famous husbands. Yes, yes, I said, I
went there.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And he essentially is in charge of Red Bull, which
is the team the team.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
They'll be glad one they are they just flinched.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Toto Wolf from Mercedes is just somewhere how to cult
shiver going say what is that?
Speaker 4 (09:57):
But this is what Drives to Survive has done, is
that we can say Christian Toto in conversation and you
believe that other people know who you're talking about exactly
because it brought these big names in F one that
aren't the drivers, they're the team managers, and yet they
have become part of pop culture.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And we'll talk about what it's done for F one
down the track.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
But in season five, which is August twenty twenty two,
Fernando Alonso leaves Alpine for Aston Martin.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
And remember, at this time Alpine has Fernando Alonso, Esteban
Oconn and Oscar piastre Is waiting in the wings, cannot
get a seat because he is the reserved driver.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
But waiting in a very well financed wing where they
are doing a lot to develop him, believing that he
will be their next star. Yes, and looking at their
stable of talent, being like Fernando a Lonzo's forty one
but still driving at his peak. But how great, Yes,
look look at our stacked stable of drivers. So Team
Alpine find out about Fernando leaving via Media. Alpine then go, oh,
(10:59):
that's unfortunately. We believe that we were in good faith
conversations with Alonzo. But anyway, They then tweet and I
wish I could describe this better. Are shaking hands of
most between Eseva Nocon and Oscar Piastre, and it essentially says,
after four years as part of the family, Piastre has
(11:20):
been announced in the race seat alongside Esva Oconn. So
they're essentially going, well done, young man, you've developed line
up confirmed.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yes, is in this Yes, be like sad, so sad
we've lost Alonso, but my god, I'm so glad that
we've spent four million dollars developing this one.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
Because we forget that this they're not talking in Australian
so brilliant. You're young thing, you're twenty one and you're
on the greed wa a time.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yes, and everyone's going, oh, I mean makes sense, well
done LP in great great news.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Slash change McLaren Daniel Ricardo just not clicking, which is
really hard for Australians because he is, as per this series,
the star the protagonist can't leave. But he also apparently
isn't driving well. Yes, and it wasn't for a short
period of time, it was for a longer period of time.
And he's such a tested experience driver. He's had amazing success.
(12:12):
And he also had a podium for McLaren. Yes, not
a podium he won, he won the Italian GP. So
this is all happening in the background. McLaren been like, ooh,
who do we get?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
What do we do? And they're like, willis pstre available.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
The afternoon that Alpine had put out their handshaking tweet
being like welcome Oscar Pstree Oscar ps tree tweets. I
understand that without my agreement, alpinef one have put out
a press release this afternoon that I am driving for
them next year. This is wrong and I have not
(12:44):
signed a contract with Alpine for twenty twenty three. I
will not be driving for them next year. And we
are talking about a twenty one year old from Australia
all of a sudden, on a very very big, very
very public show, getting hammet for his character.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Yes, so essentially Oscar has gone from a reserve driver
to confirmed that he's going to be get a seat
and be on the F one circuit. However, it's not
with his junior club shall we call them in Alpine
he has backstabbed for one of a better word, that
team and has moved to McLaren because, to be honest,
I think Ballsy moved from him. He knows that he
(13:26):
wanted to be on that grid, he wanted to be racing,
and he saw that future with.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
McLaren and he went, yeah, that's what I want.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
And at the time, the context of it all is
Alpine and McLaren are like fighting for fourth and fifth
in the Constructors Championship, which essentially means you have to
have you both your drivers performing well and there's a
big difference between them, but they're all at loggerheads. The
world implodes and the next episode opens up and he's
going for a jog in the south of France with
Mark Webber and you just think this kid is living
(13:55):
the most ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Life as Amina who puts clothes in an oven to drive.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
I know, so again we'll fastrack through this.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
But Daniel Ricardo then releases a selfie video in collaboration
with McLaren being like, I'm so sad We've tried it
gives conscious uncoupling. It does because he was like, we've tried,
it's just not working. We're really sad about it, but
hopefully going forward. But you definitely get the impression that
Daniel Riccardo wasn't the one doing the breaking up.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah. Nah nah, he got sacked.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
So Lando Norris there, and it also he outshone Riccardo.
It has to be said. He had seventy six points
to Ricardo's nineteen.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So he is a McLaren driver, yes.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
And also the darling so Lando Norris is there and
he needs a teammate, he will presumably step up and
beat the lead driver lead driver. Yeah, then sits down
Oscar Piastre and he goes, hi, I'm back as a
McLaren driver now.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Who everyone thinks, rightly or wrongly, has questionable character in
Oscar Piastree right.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Or at the very least Alpina throwing every bit of
mud and hoping it sticks. Yes, yes, as in looking
down the barrel on drive to survive, saying I would
have thought that he had more integrity From this, I
cannot understand a lack of loyalty. It starts, it's giving
very Dan Andrews. It starts as four million. At one
point it's five million, when they're like, we should sue
for five million dollars because essentially we were putting funding
(15:19):
into this kid with the belief that there was in exchange,
and that exchange was that eventually he would be a
driver for us. And he has pulled the rug out
from under us via a tweet. It's all very sassy
if one, and there's sort of a chat and McLaren's like, oh, well,
you can't be doing that.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
That'll look bad.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
So they're trying to sub everything around, and they end
up going with Pierre Gasli instead of Danny Riccardo, and
then Dan is left out.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
In the cold. Fuck them all.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
Fuck I believe the actual technical term that Dan uses.
But through all of this, this is how the world
was introduced in many ways the non motorsport world, because
the motorsport world had been talking about him for a
very long time.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
But that was the way that a lot of.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
People that are consuming F one casually via this hugely
successful Netflix series, was introduced to a twenty one year.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Old yes he was twenty one at the time.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
And then pressure, the pressure, and also just the questions
of like, okay, so you're apparently this big shot, right,
You've made this big shot move in deciding that you
want to be at McLaren. You want to take that
driver's seat. Okay, sure, prove it, show us what you
can do.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
And he has in his rookie season, after a slower
than desired start that the car wasn't great at McLaren,
they've ben had some upgrades.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
And upgrade they have. He's got back to.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Back podiums, one of them ahead of his teammate Lando Norris.
But all of a sudden he is in the echelon
of your Danny Ricardo's, your Mark Webbers. There's only been
six other Australians to be on a podium before now
in this enormous stage that so many try and don't
get to, and he is starting to establish himself and
(17:02):
the headlines at the moment if you read it's almost
like McLaren have a headache because is PS three actually
going to overtake Norris.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
The term teammate is so loose in.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
F one, and this is something that a mate is suggested,
almost a silent mate.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Because the fact that the only person that you know
that you should be beating is your teammate. Because they
are in the same car. Everyone else you can make
excuses for, but when there is qualifying and you're not
going faster than them, they are simply better than you.
So you need to find someone who's happy to play
(17:36):
almost second fiddle, but be very good at.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
It, which I am not sure pstre would be.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
No.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I think that he has shown enough killer instinct, and
I'm not saying that as a bad thing. I think
you have to be cutthroat in this industry. F one
is brutal, brutal, but I think that he's shown enough
killer instinct that he wouldn't be happy being number two.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
From what we've learned from researching, this is his kind
of If he wasn't an F one driver, he'd be
going to UNI and studying engineering.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
That sort of gives you.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Grew up in Melbourne, loves his cricket, loves different sport.
We also know that his mum is everyone's mom.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I want his mum, Nicole is Nicole past I want
her to adopt me.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
So she tweets for Australia, and by tweets, I mean
ex's for Australia, so much so that when he got
an extension announced with McLaren, she goes, what are we
doing this? For another three years there was another one
that is she's like, right, O, race control, wrap this up.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I've got pilates in the morning.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That was when he got on a podium or onon
a sprint or something.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I'd just be like, mom, put the phone down. But
she's great, she's amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And also she's now entered into the zeitgeist as well,
because Oscar Piastre gets asked about his mom's tweets. Yeah,
because and he's like, oh god, yes, yeah, she's good.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yeah, she's she's a fan.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I guess given Australian Lark, it's giving Australian Larkin. And
after we've lost Daniel Ricardo, I know he's still technically
on the circuits, got broken up, whatever, But now that
we've lost him, we've just it's so wild that we
have replaced him with another Aussie Larkin that we can
potentially get behind who may have better racecraft and we
could be seeing even better results.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
We're starting to see a generation of athletes that were
born in the two thousands that their entire professional life
is there and documented for you. He's even got Oscarpiastri
dot com where you can go on and learn in parts.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
About him, especially in F one. Yeah, and that is
the Drive to Survive effect.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Talk about the numbers well after this show.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
So this show has been going for five seasons now.
In twenty twenty one, Formula one reported a global TV
audience of one and a half billion billion for the races. Now,
I will guarantee you more people have watched Drive to Survive.
And the change in the audience that we have seen
consuming F one and who are now F one nerds
(19:57):
can be traced back to this show. Because it's a
more diverse audience. You are getting four times the number
of female eyes on this sport than there ever has
been before. And that is because of this reality show.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
And do you know why the drama the drama women
don't necessarily love and we're genderizing this because it's just
the way it is. That's the way the audience split
has always been for motorsport. It's more male dominant than female.
Women haven't fallen more in love than watching cars go
round and around. Yeah, they've fallen in love with the
fact that Fernando A. Lonzo says I'm leaving via the media. Yes,
(20:32):
this tweet comes out, it's drama. It's reality TV drama.
Forget housewives. F one for me is not your top
tier sport that women tend to be into until now,
and it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
It's also cool that the Formula one as a body
and as a sport has embraced it, like they haven't
gate kept that. They've opened it. They've opened themselves up
right and they've embraced it and been like, yeah, you
know what, this is sport which we have held at
the top echelon when it comes to money. It's for
the rich and famous. Hello monarka monarch. But then it's like,
(21:09):
actually everyone can enjoy this.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
It has changed the way that sport is documented and
the way that fans are engaged.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
And the number one storyline for season six guaranteed is
going to start our little lossie that could.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
It is, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Oscar Piastre, He's just going to keep on going because arguably,
do you think he is Australia's most successful athlete right
now on a global stage?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yes, And I would say that as someone who for
work reads sport headlines. The fact that he has back
to back podiums and the people that are in the
conversation around him are your Maxistappan, Orlando Norris and how cool,
so cool, And he's got so long to go. He
can do this until his mid forties. But the question
is do you like him?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
I love him.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I think that the more we get to see him,
the more that he's platformed. I'm hoping that more of
his personality comes out, the mean personality. I'm here for
the mean personality. I'm here for him giving side eye
to people and backing it up with results.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
I told you at age well we seem like geniuses,
don't we. But thank you for listening to Two Good
Sports sports News told differently.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
We'll be back on Monday, not Tuesday, Monday, with a
special Brownlow episode going through the deep dive of some
of the best and let's be honest, most memorable moments
from football and AFL's Night of Nights.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
But again, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Please do follow us at two Good Sports Podcasts and
until next week, be a good sport
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