After a fierce battle between Alpine and McLaren for Oscar Piastri, the Australian driver finally opted for the British team for his Formula 1 debut. While the French team still has a lot of regrets, Red Bull also had some a few years ago. The Austrian company tried to include Piastri in its junior programme, but it never materialised.

From next season, Oscar Piastri will experience Formula 1 with McLaren as the Australian will drive alongside Lando Norris. But he could also have driven with Red Bull.

Indeed, Christian Horner could have welcomed the driver in his junior programme a few years ago, but this did not materialise, much to the regret of the director of the Austrian team.

While Oscar Piastri was driving for Arden in F4, Red Bull could have signed the young driver at that time. Unfortunately, the Austrian team decided not to sign the Australian.

“Oscar was driving for Arden in F4 and Formula Renault and was of course very talented. There was an opportunity for Red Bull to sign him at the time, but in the end we didn’t take that option and I regret that. What he achieved in F3 and then in F2 is phenomenal.”  said Horner.

Christian Horner, the director of RedBull, would have ensured that the driver did not go elsewhere, as he indicated in comments published by MotorSport.

“If he had driven here, we would have locked him in for a while. It’s hard to know what he was promised (at Alpine), but what happened was certainly surprising. Fernando Alonso threw a spanner in the works and started the game of musical chairs. Piastri is a great driver. The only problem is that the expectations around him will be immense from now on.”

Christian Horner then spoke about Oscar Piastri’s future debut in Formula 1. He also spoke about his future partnership with Lando Norris.

“He will arrive and will have to meet the expectations of Lando, which will not be an easy task. In this business you either swim or you sink. But he’s a very capable driver and I’m sure he’ll do well.”

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Piastri started racing remote controlled cars at a national level before beginning his karting career in 2011. Having gone professional and competed in various Australian races and championships in 2014, Piastri began competing in European and other CIK-FIA sanctioned karting championships with Ricky Flynn Motorsport the following year.

He moved to the United Kingdom to further his racing career in 2016, finishing sixth in the 2016 World Championship in Bahrain.

Oscar Piastri won the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup with R-ace GP, and won the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship and 2021 Formula 2 Championship with Prema Racing. He is only the sixth driver to win the GP2/Formula 2 Championship in their rookie season, and the fifth driver to win the GP3/Formula 3 Championship and the GP2/Formula 2 Championship in consecutive seasons.

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