Just five races into his Formula 1 career, Oscar Piastri has been labelled “a future world champion”.
Piastri, who turned 22 last month, claimed titles in F3 and F2 before making the jump to Formula 1 with McLaren this year.
It was a controversial move, following Piastri’s links with Renault and Alpine earlier in his career, but his boss at McLaren couldn’t be happier with the young Australian.
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McLaren severed ties with compatriot Daniel Ricciardo to secure Piastri’s services.
“We’re very impressed with him,” Brown said. “He’s very focused. He’s not really made any big mistakes. (Just the) typical exploring of the limits, so the odd lock of a wheel here and there.
“He’s not been to all these (circuits used so far in 2023) so early indications are we’ve got a future world champion on our hands.
“We just have to work to give him a faster car now.”
Piastri picked up his only points to date with an eighth-placed finish at his home Grand Prix in Melbourne.
He sits 14th in the driver standings, proving competitive to date with teammate Lando Norris, who is in ninth place with 10 points overall, finishing a season-best sixth in Australia.
The McLaren has been plagued by drag and grip issues thus far, while an electrical fault and then a brake-by-wire failure ended his races in Bahrain and Miami early.
Brown believes the combination of Piastri and 23-year-old Norris is ideal for the Woking-based team.
“Oscar has been impressive since we’ve had him in the car. He’s very mature. He’s very focused and he’s very technical,” Brown said.
“The combination of Lando and Oscar, I couldn’t think of a better combination of drivers…Oscar has done a fantastic job and he’s trading lap times with Lando now and that’s what you want.”
While F1 teammates are notoriously competitive on the grid, even Norris had some kind words for the Australian, intimating he is providing more of a challenge than Ricciardo, his stable mate in 2021 and 2022.
“He’s a lovely guy, down to earth, a normal guy, a hard worker. So it’s good fun,” he said. “Different, I guess, to Daniel, I feel like a bit of a contrast of Australians, but still good fun. “He’s very fast at the same time, so he’s probably been pushing me a little bit more than in the past couple of years.”
Following the cancellation of last weekend’s Imola Grand Prix due to shocking flooding in Italy, McLaren’s next opportunity to grab some points is at the Spanish Grand Prix on 4 June.