Oscar Piastri’s meteoric rise in open-wheel motor racing is nothing short of a scintillating story in itself. The steady progress in the feeder series, year after year, earned him a third driver’s seat with Alpine in 2022. After that, although in a controversial fashion, he finally earned a contract with the McLaren F1 team. However, his interaction with the drivers in the top-rung league started way back. As the circus now moves to Baku for the 4th race of the season, George Russell recalls his hilarious first interaction with the Australian rookie.

Owing to his exploits in Formula Renault in 2019, Oscar caught the attention of the Renault (now Alpine) Sporting Academy. After that, it was all smooth sailing as he went on to win F3 in 2020, followed by F2 in 2021. Bagging three back-to-back pole positions in F2 earned him a coveted spot among the likes of Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Alex Albon. The three were the only drivers before Piastri to score a hat trick of pole positions in F2.

George Russell recalls his first meeting with Oscar Piastri

George recently appeared for an interview on The Fast And The Curious Podcast. There, co-host Christian Hewgill told him that Oscar had appeared for an interview with them a few days ago and recalled his first meeting with the Mercedes driver. However, he didn’t reveal much. Hewgill then asked Russell to give his version of the story as much as he could share.

George narrated, “The first time I met Oscar Piastri was in 2020, I believe it was. And we were both on a direct flight from London to Perth. I was on the way to the Australian GP. He was on the way also to the Grand Prix, I guess as a junior driver at the time. And we just bumped into each other in the toilets when we landed in Perth.”

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That had co-host Betty Glover ask him, “Were you both going for a wee next to each other?”

Russell replied, “Yeah, I don’t think it was lined up directly alongside one another. But I think we ended up washing our hands next to each other.”

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This race weekend will be Oscar’s first outing on the Baku Street Circuit in an F1 car. George, on the other hand, made the most of the situation last year he was here.

Can Russell better his result from the last time he was in Azerbaijan?

The 2022 Azerbaijan GP was a forgettable one for Ferrari. First, Carlos Sainz retired owing to some mechanical failure. Later, Leclerc, while leading the race, had to stop when plumes of smoke burst out of his exhaust. Max Verstappen then went on to win the race while his partner, Sergio Perez came in 2nd.

The Mercedes duo followed the Red Bull pair and finished P3 and P4, with Russell leading Lewis Hamilton. This time around though, it is the threat from Aston Martin that has turned out to be a bigger challenge. Ferrari, on the other hand, has once again found itself grappling with reliability issues.

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The race could turn out to be a big outing for Piastri. McLaren is ready to roll out a big chunk of changes to their cars. The Aussie driver will hope to see his fate take an upward trajectory this weekend onwards.