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McLaren F1 has possibly made the smartest move in its F1 history in all these years. Even if it finishes behind Alpine F1 in the standings this year, it could have more to celebrate than the French team. Honestly, it's a situation where the latter would have lost despite winning.
The Woking-based outfit has finally managed to snatch F1's dream guy, Oscar Piastri. The Australian's name has been doing the rounds in F1 for almost two years now. Many believe that this move will only grant McLaren the upper hand in its future.
McLaren's Piastri snatch from under Alpine's noses will always remain iconic and important to the point where they even paid off Daniel Ricciardo to make way for the 2021 F2 champion. To Piastri's credit, he played a smart move to finalize his place in the team as early as July.
Now that the team's 2023 driver line-up is confirmed, let's find out how these boys can fill the missing piece in the puzzle that is McLaren's F1 future.
#5 Oscar Piastri - Lando Norris might adjust better to McLaren's F1 cars
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are some of the young minds with a better understanding of the new cars. Norris, in particular, gets the upper hand given that he joined McLaren in 2019 and has a lot more experience knowing how to handle the MCL models.
Even this year, with new regulations in place, we saw how Norris managed to outperform Daniel Ricciardo time and again. During testing, he understood the car and adjusted to it much faster and hence produced better results. Add Piastri to the equation and McLaren will have both its drivers adapting faster to future cars, unlike Ricciardo who failed to gel with the one he has. With a car that was not suited to his driving style, Ricciardo has suffered in both his seasons with McLaren.
#4 Similar age groups will help the two understand each other and the team better
Lando Norris is 22 years old while Oscar Piastri is 21. Due to their age, Norris and Piastri might share a similar wavelength and understand each other far better than Norris and Daniel Ricciardo did. While it was clear that Norris got along well with Ricciardo later on, they did not necessarily share similar interests.
Previously, the Norris-Carlos Sainz pairing was a mega-hit for the team. The two gelled well, with Sainz being a lot closer to Norris' age, and even pulling McLaren to a P3 finish in the 2020 F1 constructors' title. Outside of his team, Norris is very close to many other drivers in and around his age group where they even play golf together. Hence, Piastri's age might just make him gel better with the Briton and do the charm. He probably also needs to start playing golf!
#3 A potential rivalry could be fruitful for McLaren
Youngsters are often touted as having more determination and zeal to achieve things in their life. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri's junior careers have definitely proved they have that. So, it wouldn't be a surprise if the two boys develop a rivalry. This also won't be the first time at McLaren or in F1 for this to occur.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are some of the biggest examples of similar age rivalry in F1. And though it was negative, it made Mercedes inevitable with only Rosberg and Hamilton becoming capable of beating each other. If something similar happens at this British camp, they will possibly have more to thank than feel sorry for.
#2 Piastri and Norris have many years ahead of them
The Australian and the Briton do not have to necessarily start fighting for championships immediately. As McLaren F1 goes through the stages of developing its car to perform better, the duo will have time to relax besides being naturally expected to perform at the highest level.
In snatching Piastri, McLaren has given itself some time to groom a future world champion and develop its car to compete at the highest level. There's no doubt that the team will support both the youngsters with either one of them or both becoming champions. Further, the Woking-based outfit's nurturing of Norris for multiple years now might also see him get promoted to Mercedes, making Piastri a lead here, or both could be a part of McLaren for several years to come.
#1 Both Piastri and Norris are touted as incredibly talented
To be clear, we could potentially be looking at prodigies here. With Piastri winning back-to-back championships in the Junior Formulae and Norris only falling short to George Russell in F2 (another Mercedes prodigy), we can expect these two to have some exceptional talent with the car.
Norris has already proven that by dragging the MCL36 to positions that are worth recognizing. He has not even missed the trained eye of Lewis Hamilton, who called the 22-year-old a great driver. While Piastri is yet to spread out his wings, we expect nothing short of him.
With the two brilliant talents joining hands at McLaren together, the F1 fraternity can't wait to see how they take the team to new heights. The British team might've just concocted themselves the most brilliant driver line-up for next year.
Also Checkout:- F1 2022 Results
