Piastri’s history with Monza 

Oscar Piastri heads to Monza this weekend with three top-ten finishes in his last four Formula 1 outings, and he’ll enter with a good knowledge of a track that’s played a vital role in his meteoric rise into F1.

However, it’s not Piastri’s first experience in an F1 car at The Temple of Speed, having tested there for Alpine, driving a 2018 Renault R.S.18 in his championship winning 2021 FIA Formula 2 year, which he then transferred into the second tier machinery with a crucial victory.

Piastri and Lando Norris will go to Monza with plenty of faith in the MCL60, and the young Aussie is now at a point where he knows it’s on him to perform owing to some capable machinery – a remarkable conversation space to be for F1 rookie.

Piastri testing the 2018 Renault R.S.18 F1 car for Alpine at Monza in 2021

“I’m really excited to be racing in Monza in an F1 car. It’s a fast track, which is fun, but there are some trickier parts,” Piastri said. 

“The team have been working hard to keep improving the car, and it feels good going into a race weekend knowing you have a car with so much potential.

“Last weekend showed we’re competitive despite the challenges we faced. We’ll be taking our learnings into this weekend, and hopefully make the final European race of the year a memorable one.”

All up, the three-time international junior champion has raced at the home of Italian speed nine times throughout 2018-2021, which culminated in a special victory during his march toward history-making F2 title, as well as a vital F3 podium that gave him the genuine sniff of winning that championship.

His first time at Monza saw him contest Round 2 of the 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup for Arden, finishing 12 with retirement in Race 2.

Piastri driving for Arden at Monza for the first time in the 2018 Formula Renault Eurocup

In 2019 he made the successful move to French team R-Ace GP, and in the first round of his championship winning campaign, he finished 18th and 4th before taking the double at Silverstone to kick start his year.

In 2020 he made his move to Formula 3 with Prema where he scored a vital P3 in the Sprint race in the penultimate round of the season.

Piastri’s F3 Sprint podium from 15th on the grid at Monza was vital to his championship success. Image: LAT

Piastri was involved in a tight battle with teammate American Logan Sargeant and Frenchman Theo Pourchaire that season, and at the Monza, starting way back in P15 with Sergeant in P10.

His drive to third place allowed to reagin the lead by eight points over Sargeant who was tagged by Clement Novalak and sent to the rear of the field. 

In the Feature Race, Novalak finished his job as the team Prema assassin, taking Piastri out to give the Aussie a DNF and causing a four-car pile up.

Piastri (back left) was taken out by Novalak to threaten his championsip lead at Monza in the 2020 F3 Feature. Image: LAT

The following round at Mugello, Piastri also finished ahead of Sargeant to claim the title by just three points over a fast finishing Pourchaire, and four points from Sergeant in third.

In 2021, Piastri entered the record books by becoming only the third driver after Charles Leclerc and George Russell to do the F3/F2 double – with the Aussie making it a unique hat-trick with the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup title.

Piastri led Gaunyu at the final safety flag to take his first win at Monza in the 2021 F2 season. Images: LAT

That season saw him take his first race win and pole at Monza over the very driver that he was testing alongside at Alpine in the older F1 machinery – Zhou Guanyu.

After taking his second straight pole position – in a run of five straight to finish the year – Piastri collected points with a 4th and a 7th over the two Sprint races that occurred that weekend.

The feature race was fraught with safety flags, and would also end under one, with Juri Vips bringing out the first – under which Piastri pitted after the cars in front of him took the option.

In a 30 lap outing, Piastri held off Guanyu before a collision between drivers Beckmann and Viscaal saw the race finish under a safety, with Piastri extending his championship lead to 15 points over his Chinese rival.

The rest as they say is history, as Piastri went on a complete rampage to take the next three Feature Race wins in Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi (including the Sprint at Jeddah) to take the title over Robert Shwartzman by 60.5 points.

Piastri’s took his fifth top-ten finish of the year at Zandvoort in challenging circumstances last week. Image: LAT

Find out what Reynolds puts the drop in form down to and much more by listening to the full interview from Reynolds in the latest edition of the AUTO ACTION RevLimiter Podcast HERE

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