Piastri Will Become 'Competitive' And Push McLaren Forward This Year Says Button

Friday, 12 January 2024 at 15:00

Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button suggested Oscar Piastri might become more dangerous with more experience going into 2024.

McLaren F1 driver Oscar Piastri had a quite successful rookie season. He achieved his first F1 win, two Grand Prix podiums, and became the rookie of the year.

What is impressive is that the Australian managed to achieve all that while adjusting to the speed and technical differences of F1 cars and exploring new circuits that he had never driven on.

The 22-year-old has been able to match the qualifying pace of his teammate on multiple occasions, and Jenson Button believes he is only going to get better this year. He told Sky Sports:

“"Oscar [Piastri] with a year under his belt, he'll have more consistency going into the 2024 season. He had glimpses of greatness [in 2023] obviously but then consistency just wasn't there, I think he ended up with less than half the points of Lando [Norris] (97 vs 205)."”

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Strangely enough, Piastri finished far behind his teammate last season despite amazing performances. McLaren team principal Andra Stella attributed the low score in points to Piastri not having driven at more than a third of the circuits in the F1 calendar.

However, this only goes to prove Button's point. Nobody in McLaren expected Piastri to achieve the results he has achieved, and his team has been more than satisfied, given it was his first season.

Next year, the expectations from the Australian driver will be higher, but he also should be naturally better as he is now much more familiar with all the tracks and F1 cars as well. The former F1 driver added:

“"But coming into a second season he's got that under his belt, I think he'll be competitive. So those two drivers [Norris and Piastri] will definitely push McLaren forward a bit as well."”