Oscar Piastri—the Prodigy who’s been rated highly ever since he joined the grid this season. The Aussie who’s already doing what his compatriot, Daniel Ricciardo, couldn’t do for two years at McLaren—challenge Lando Norris. The Rookie who’s living up to all his expectations. In only his tenth race for the Woking outfit at the British GP last weekend, Oscar Piastri qualified in P3, just a little more than a tenth off of Norris’ pace. And needless to say, he was thrilled with his performance.

At the Austrian GP a week before the British GP, McLaren added the first round of upgrades of its major update package only to Norris’ car. While the Brit finished in P4, Piastri could manage only a P16, proving the effectiveness of the upgrades. So for Silverstone, McLaren added updates to his MCL60 too, and he took the most out of it by achieving his best qualifying result so far—a second-row start.

Almost everyone calls Lando Norris one of the grid’s fastest and most talented drivers. He’s proven that by maximizing his car’s potential, at least during qualifying, at every race weekend. And almost every qualifying session, Piastri has been right next to Norris. So qualifying in P3 and just a tenth off of Norris made the Aussie’s day, but he revealed something that made it even better. 

After qualifying on Saturday, Piastri said, “Here I thought qualifying third would be the most fun part of my day. But then I got to shoot a t-shirt gun.“ Every race weekend, a handful of drivers get to shoot their merchandise into the crowd, which always looks like a fun ordeal. And at Silverstone, Piastri got his chance. 

And from what he said, it obviously didn’t disappoint him or the crowd. While he got to do something he’d been looking forward to on Saturday, he had to follow through on something not as “fun” on Sunday.

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Oscar Piastri indulged in an F1 tradition after the British GP

Piastri came oh-so-close to making his Sunday as good as Saturday. After qualifying third, and given McLaren’s race pace, he would’ve finished on the podium had it not been for the Safety Car. Two laps after he pitted for fresh tires, the SC came out, and Lewis Hamilton jumped him. After the restart, he fought for third but fell just short. Even so, he got his best result of the season, one even Norris was proud of.

So when the McLaren duo went out to meet the crowd after the race, Norris made Piastri do a Shoey—the F1 tradition started by Ricciardo, which involves pouring champagne into a shoe and drinking it from there. Piastri didn’t look like he wanted to do it, but to please the crowd, he followed through. Whether or not he liked it, the crowd (and Norris) sure enjoyed watching him do his first Shoey.

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Can Oscar Piastri achieve a podium in the coming races?

WATCH THIS STORY | How Oscar Piastri Has Made a Scintillating Rise to the Pinnacle of Motorsport