McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri is a ‘future world champion’, insists Zak Brown

McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown has called their rookie driver Oscar Piastri a 'future world champion' after his impressive start to the 2023 season.

The Aussie driver, who made a high-profile move to the Woking-based team last season, may not have too many points to showcase during his blazing start but has shown that he can fight it out with the big boys if given the car. He has scored in only one race thus far, in Australia, out of the first five races of the season.

As per Sky Sports, Brown said of Oscar Piastri:

"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. So 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.

"He's not really made certainly not any big mistakes. Typical exploring the limits so the odd lock of a wheel here and there but yeah, he's not been to all these races 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."

"He's a lovely guy, down to earth, a normal guy, a hard worker" - Lando Norris on Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri's teammate Lando Norris too has praised him and stated that the Aussie is a hard worker and a nice guy.

Norris was quoted as saying by the aforementioned publication:

"He's a lovely guy, down to earth, a normal guy, a hard worker. So it's good fun. Different, I guess, to Daniel, I feel like a bit of a contrast of Australian, 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."

While comparing Oscar Piastri to former teammate Daniel Ricciardo, Norris added:

"How I worked last year and how I worked with Daniel, it's not too different, it's not like too many things change. They lean on me maybe a bit more for the knowledge of how we were in previous years to look at the development from last year to this year and things like that.

"Apart from that, you both give your sides of the feelings and the story of what's going on with the car and what you want from the car, which aligns very well."

It will be interesting to see if the Aussie can get the better of Norris, unlike Daniel Ricciardo, during his time at McLaren.