THREE CONSECUTIVE TITLES SPECIAL FOR PIASTRI

Last night Australian Oscar Piastri won the second-tier FIA Formula 2 Championship by finishing third in Abu Dhabi, it is his third title in three years, something that he is incredibly proud of.

Piastri was a rookie in the championship this year after being promoted for winning the Formula 3 Championship in 2020.

By taking the title in his rookie season, the Victorian joins George Russell and Charles Leclerc as the only other drivers to have done this in the past.

Russell and Leclerc are also the only previous drivers to win the F3 and F2 Championships back-to-back.

However, Piastri has achieved something that these two up and coming Formula 1 stars have not, winning three straight titles, as the Aussie won the 2019 Renault Eurocup title.

“It’s a massively proud moment for me,” Piastri said post-race. “I think I’m the first one to do those three Championships in a row.

“I’m super happy, I didn’t really come into F2 trying to do three in a row. I just wanted to win Formula 2 for the sake of winning Formula 2, but it looks very nice on my CV. Super happy to have won three in a row!”

Over the course of the season Piastri has won five races, finished on the podium a further four times and scored a record equalling five pole positions, the most recent of which he hopes to convert to a sixth win this evening.

The 2022 Alpine reserve driver was asked in the press conference what it sounds like to be called the Formula 2 champion.

“It sounds very good to me,” he smiled. “It’s been a good year, definitely.

“I didn’t know if I could do it at the beginning of the year, because to be completely honest coming into Formula 2 as a rookie is pretty difficult.

“I think after the first couple of races my confidence grew, and I’m very happy to be champion.

“It’s been a tough year, I think (Guanyu) Zhou was the main rival for the first half of the year but I knew that some of the other guys were just behind him,” he expressed.

“Like Robert (Shwartzman, Piastri’s teammate), for example, I knew in the same car as me he was going to be strong.

“I think ultimately his Qualifying performances have let him down in the Championship fight, but until I left Jeddah I was well aware that it could so easily swing like it often does in Formula 2. It’s been a great battle all year and I’m glad that I could come out on top.”

Piastri joined the front-running Italian Prema Racing outfit in 2020 to contest F3 and remained with them in F2 this year, winning the title both years.

The 20-year-old was very thankful to the team for their hard work.

“A massive amount of help, but not just this year, over the last two years,” Piastri said.

“We’ve got a 100% winning record together so I’m very happy about that.

“Prema has won so many things, and I say so many things because there are too many to list, for a reason, and it’s through hard work, a great atmosphere in the team and ultimately giving us a fast race car.

“They were massively helpful at the beginning of the year because there’s a lot of new things to learn in F2 and I think we tackled them as a whole team really well together and got up to pace a lot quicker than what I probably expected so they’ve been massively helpful.”

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