When a Formula 1 driver arrives at a racetrack, he selects full race mode and puts everything else out of his mind to focus on the day job. Over the course of the last decade covering the sport, that’s usually the mode they’re engaged in when I get to talk to them through my role as an interviewer for F1. But for a change of pace and as part of an exclusive new series, I headed Off The Grid to hang out with the sport’s elite racers away from the office.
In episode one, McLaren racer and championship contender Oscar Piastri invited me to Monte Carlo, Monaco – the place he now calls home.
The 24-year-old, who gave up one of his rare days off to take part in the filming (rather than via mandatory team media or commercial time), talks about the surrealness of living in Monaco and being in Formula 1 with a shot at the title, the challenge of moving across the world to chase his dream, his support network – including having fellow Aussie and ex-F1 driver Mark Webber in his corner – his love of remote control cars and playing an Uno World Championship with his rival drivers…
It’s clear that the incredible position Oscar Piastri currently finds himself in – living in the Principality of Monaco, racing for the current Teams’ Champions and being a contender for the Formula 1 title for the first time – is not lost on him. And that’s despite the fact he, his family and his supporters have done everything they can to get to this position.
“There’s a lot about my life that is pretty cool,” he says as we stroll alongside the harbour in Monaco, which looks resplendent in the summer sun. “I’m more taken aback by where I am just in my career.
“The position I’m in in the championship at the moment, where the team is at, that’s been the thing that is a bit hard to sink in. Living here is another thing as well, but my whole life in general, including my job, is pretty surreal at the moment.”
Piastri has only been in an F1 race seat since 2023. But he’s already got nine wins and 24 podiums under his belt, while looking like calmness personified in the heat of battle – as well as when dealing with the ups and downs that come with fighting for an F1 World Championship for the first time.
“I find it quite easy to get over things,” he says, when I ask him about the start of his career, at Bahrain in 2023. “I was more nervous about how the race was going to go – as I hadn’t been [in] a race for over 12 months. Am I going to get a good start? Stay out of trouble? Get the pit stop right?
“My first race weekend went pretty terribly! Qualified 18th, I think. Did only 10 laps of the race before I broke down. Then Saudi wasn’t a great result but there were glimpses of really good things.
“I made it to Q3, which at that point was a good effort with the car we had! Then you start to feel like an F1 driver, feel like you belong – I know I can do it. That was all I needed, just the confidence boost that I can fight with everyone on the grid and I belong on this grid.”
While most drivers kick off their racing career in karting, Piastri started with remote control cars. His father Chris brought a remote control monster truck back from a trip to the United States and his son instantly became hooked on it.
Then things got serious as he took his dad’s remote control car racing competitively. He won his first national RC championship aged nine, beating men who were in their 30s.
Given he had such an affinity with RC cars, we organised to take him back to an RC track in the hills above Monaco for the first time in more than a decade – and shipped the RC car he used to race back then over so he could take it for a spin.
It didn’t take long for him to get his eye back in – and within 10 laps or so, he was already within a second of the best lap time around the track. His hand-eye coordination was extraordinary – though not so much of a surprise given his day job…
We then went for a spin in a McLaren road car (one of the perks of being a Formula 1 driver for McLaren is that you get access to some pretty impressive automotive machinery) and I had a chance to see how good Piastri – who passed his driving test first time – was at parking. Check out the episode to see how he did.
Piastri could hear the sound of Formula 1 cars powering around Albert Park from his backyard In Melbourne growing up – and while the time zone made it difficult to watch all the F1 races live, he watched the highlights, “especially when Mark [Webber] was racing and fighting for championships as well”.
Fast forward to today and the driver he used to support is now in his corner as his manager. “It’s pretty surreal,” he said. “I grew up watching Mark racing on TV, so to now have him as part of my management is kind of strange in some ways.
“It feels very normal now but when we first explored that route, it was surreal – I’m meeting someone I’ve watched pretty much my whole childhood in F1 and he’s now taking care of my career and basically telling me what to do!”
We cover off his immense rise through the junior ranks, where he won Formula Renault, F3 and F2 in successive years – “it’s a time I look back on now with a lot of good memories. At the time, it was fun, but incredibly tense” – and the wait for a seat on the F1 grid – “it was a tough time. As a racing driver, you want to go racing” – plus that tweet which announced he would not be driving for Alpine in 2023 – “there was obviously a lot of noise around what was going on. I knew it was going to be a big story!”
There’s time to chat about growing up at a boarding school in England – “for most kids, the idea of living at school sounds torturous. But I knew I had to suck it up” – where he met his now girlfriend Lily, and what it’s like to be famous – “it’s still a bit strange”.
And we chat all things McLaren and Lando Norris, plus how he celebrated his first win in Hungary. “The flight got delayed by 2.5 hours. I was travelling with Lando, Alex [Albon] and a few others. We had burgers and then played Monopoly on the way back.
“We ended up flying into a different airport, so had a three-hour drive home. I didn’t sleep until 5am the day after my first win – not because I was out celebrating but because I was just trying to get home!”
Talking of his fellow drivers, it turns out they are just as competitive off track as they are on it. “Myself, George Russell and Alex Albon had an Uno World Championship on the way from Baku to Singapore last year.
“There were some questionable rule decisions and rules I have never heard of before, mainly from George. Apparently they were family rules. Did they help him win a few games? Yes, they did. We’re always competitive at everything, all the drivers – but it’s always good fun.”
We ended our day at Tete de Chien, which offers stunning views across Monaco.
“For me, being here in Monaco is very special and a privilege, but I think it’s a summary of just how crazy life has been in the last few years,” he said. “Just being an F1 driver fighting for wins and now the championship at this age is very special. It’s a pretty wild life.”
Piastri may come across as quiet, but that shields a funny, thoughtful, kind person who is – and always has been – ultra-focused on one thing: achieving success at the highest level of motor racing. It’s like he was built to fight for wins and titles. I got the overwhelming sense it’ll happen at some point, whether that’s this year or in the future.
You can watch the full episode of Off The Grid with Oscar Piastri exclusively on F1 TV now.
