McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has hilariously clarified that he wasn’t competing in the ongoing Summer Olympics in Paris. The Aussie driver has established himself in F1 for his cool and calm demeanor inside the cockpit but on occasion, he has displayed his dry sense of humor.
Since entering the sport in 2023 with the Woking-based team, the Melbourne native has impressed everyone with his progression which has coincided with the team’s best run of results since 2012.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris’s off-track camaraderie also indicates their relationship within the team as both never shy away from taking punts at each other. The 23-year-old once again displayed his sense of humor on social media when a user posted a picture of a lookalike of the former competing for the Dutch in the gymnastics category.
thank you god for the dutch pic.twitter.com/lwzauk4ULa
— janito (@yassnito) July 31, 2024
The McLaren driver hilariously replied:
“Can confirm I am not competing at the Olympics.”
Can confirm I am not competing at the Olympics
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) August 1, 2024
Oscar Piastri gives his take on the team’s approach for the remainder of the 2024 season
Oscar Piastri has stated that the team’s first ‘objective’ is to win the Constructor’s Championship as they are just 42 points behind the world champions Red Bull, with 10 races and three Sprints remaining.
Speaking with Sky Sports, the McLaren driver said:
“The first objective is to win the constructors’ for the team and I think we’ve got a very strong chance of doing that. We’ve been closing the gap to Red Bull in the last six or seven races.”
He also clarified that his target remains to finish as high as possible in the driver’s championship but concluded that he wasn’t technically in the running for his maiden title:
“I think for me, the drivers’ standings, of course, I’d like to finish as high as I can. I’m not out of the running for the championship myself, it’s a very big ask, but I want to string together good races, build consistency on that front, and really help the team to win the constructors’.”If it comes to a situation where I need to help Lando later in the year then of course it is something we’ll discuss, but the first target is to win the constructors’ and try do a good job for myself as well,” he added.
Oscar Piastri is currently P4 in the Championship with 167 points after 14 races and three Sprints thus far. He is 10 points behind Charles Leclerc in P3 while holding a five-point advantage over Carlos Sainz in the standings.
The Aussie has stood on the podium four times the season, including his maiden race win at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July but has been close to adding to his tally in the last four races.