Piastri joins greats: Aussies first F1 wins

Oscar Piastri wrote his name into the history books by winning the Hungarian Grand Prix and joining four other Australian legends.

Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo, and now Piastri have all represented Australia on the podium’s top step in a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Piastri’s maiden success rather appropriately arrived at the Hungaroring, a circuit where all three of Australia’s 21st-century winners enjoyed success, with Webber in 2010 and Ricciardo in 2014.

The McLaren driver set it up with a forceful first corner, where he overcame more established stars Lando Norris and Max Verstappen in a three-wide battle.

The Aussie then pushed on and controlled the first two stints, only to lose track position to the team-managed undercut for Norris.

This created a tense final 22 laps where Norris threatened to deny team orders and create a situation similar to the Malaysia 2013 “Multi 21 Seb” incident.

Thankfully, Norris slowed on the main straight at the start of the penultimate lap, which ensured Piastri could get a well-deserved win.

Australia’s current F1 star sits alongside the biggest names in Australian motorsport.

As the nation basks in the glory of Piastri, let’s reflect on how the four others achieved their first Grand Prix glory.

Sir Jack Brabham – 1959 Monaco Grand Prix

Sixty-five years before Piastri, Brabham became Australia’s first Formula 1 winner on the streets of Monte Carlo no less.

Jack Brabham’s first F1 GP win at Monaco in 1959 was a portent of the unique cocktail of engineering smarts and cockpit speed the Sydneysider possessed.

The weakness of the ’58 Cooper was its production derived Citroen-ERSA transaxle, Jack was fearful that Coventry Climaxes new 2.5-litre engine’s torque would munch-it to bits in 1959.

So that winter he went to ERSA and fiddled with the moulds and patterns in their foundry, ensuring a bit more aluminium went to a seam here, and a bit more meat in the case there, then had them carefully cast a half-dozen or so cases for the Cooper works team: Brabham and Bruce McLaren.

Stirling Moss’ Rob Walker Cooper T51 Climax led the field at Monaco, but his Cooper didn’t have a trick-case, so when he retired Jack was there to take the win with the mix of speed…and the nous for which he became famous.’

After 100 laps and almost three hours of racing, he took victory by 20s over the Ferrari of Tony Brooks and also became the first driver to top 70mph around Monaco.

Alan Jones – 1977 Austrian Grand Prix

After Brabham took his last win in 1970, Australians only had to wait another seven years for another star to shine with Jones on the scene.

Like Piastri, Jones was born in Melbourne. Despite three points finishes with Surtees in 1976, he refused to drive for the team the following season, which proved to be a masterstroke.

The Aussie was back on the grid in 1977 for Shadow to replace Tom Pryce, who had a tragic accident in South Africa.

Jones made the most of the opportunity, getting back-to-back points finishes at Monaco and Belgium to build confidence before the fast Osterreichring trip.

Jones was an unlikely winner, starting in 14th, but a last-minute rain shower caused headaches for teams moments before the start.

Although Jones only made up one place on the opening lap, he flew in the new version of DN8 Ford and powered up to second by Lap 16 with some special moves at the Bosch Curve.

Mario Andretti led until an engine failure on Lap 11 with smoke pouring out of his Lotus, while Jody Scheckter was set for a podium until he collided with Patrick Neve with nine to go.

After Andretti was no longer a factor, reigning champion James Hunt took control in his McLaren M26 until that also had an engine failure 11 laps from home.

Suddenly Jones found himself with a commanding lead and did not let it go in the tricky conditions to take an underdog win that proved to be Shadow’s sole success.

“I cannot believe it,” Jones said at the time.

“We had many problems in practice, but in the race, we used a special suspension, and everything went fine.”

Rather infamously, the Australian national anthem was not prepared for Jones to have his moment on the podium, so Happy Birthday was played instead.

He won 12 times (13 if you count the Spanish Grand Prix of 1980 which was removed the championship later) and was the last Australian to become world champion with Williams in 1980.

The success may not have made the cover of AUTO ACTION issue #169, but it did take over the back page.

Mark Webber – 2009 German Grand Prix

An elated Mark Webber broke a painful 28-year drought with one spectacular drive at the Nurburgring in 2009.

Not only had it been close to three decades between Australian Grand Prix wins, but Webber himself had been chipping away for seven years and a record 130 races.

But the third-longest wait ever for a driver was certainly worth it. Webber released his emotions in an unforgettable radio message after a dramatic day in which he had to overcome a drive-through penalty and a year in which he started with a broken leg and shoulder.

Webber started from pole in the Red Bull Renault but lost the lead after an aggressive run down to Turn 1.

The Aussie was swamped by Rubens Barrichello and almost made contact with the Brawn GP, but could not avoid the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton under braking.

With Hamilton suffering a flat tyre, Webber suffered a drive-through penalty, which the Australian was not impressed with.

“I thought it [the penalty] was a little bit harsh,” Webber said, “but maybe they wanted to spice things up a little bit. It is not really my style. I did definitely lose Rubens 100 per cent for a while.

“I moved across and then what made it worse was that I shitted myself and came back across again and I thought ‘My God, there he is!’ That’s what made it look maybe a little bit worse than it was.”

After completing his first pit stop, he served the drive-through on Lap 19 and dropped to eighth.

But Webber was astonishingly fast in his second stint and caught Barrichello before the Brawn pitted on Lap 32.

With the Brazilian on a three-stop strategy and suffering a fuel rig problem, suddenly Webber found himself in the box seat and made the most of the opportunity.

The Australian charged away from Sebastian Vettel and cruised to an unforgettable 9s victory.

“It is an incredible day for me,” Webber said.

“I wanted to win so badly after (narrowly losing the British Grand Prix at) Silverstone. I thought I had a good chance there.

“But after yesterday’s pole position (here], I knew I was in a good position to try to win the race today.

“The only thing in the end that I thought was going to beat me or test me even more was the rain, but even that held off.”

Read the full AUTO ACTION race report from the time HERE

Daniel Ricciardo – 2014 Canadian Grand Prix

Thankfully, the wait for the next Australian winner came almost immediately as Webber’s Red Bull replacement, Daniel Ricciardo, took no time to announce himself.

Following Webber’s retirement, Ricciardo joined Vettel at Red Bull, but with Mercedes the dominant force at the start of the turbo hybrid era, there were little sniffs of podiums, let alone wins.

Following special performances to appear on the podium in Australia – that ultimately proved too good to be true – Spain and Monaco, Ricciardo arrived at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with plenty of confidence and used that to great effect on one crazy Sunday.

Despite starting sixth, Ricciardo made impressive progress throughout the race, eventually finishing behind Vettel after putting in some very quick laps during the second round of pit stops.

This allowed him to hunt down Perez with five laps to snatch second with only the limping leader Nico Rosberg ahead of him.

But with the German struggling with an MGU-K failure, Ricciardo sensed no better opportunity to be the first to beat Mercedes in 2014 and took it.

Two laps after passing Perez, the Aussie flew past Rosberg, coming into the final corner and snatching the lead.

After Perez and Felipe Massa crashed heavily, fighting for fourth on the final lap, this allowed Ricciardo to cruise to the chequered flag and release one of the biggest smiles ever seen on a podium.

“I’m a grand prix winner!” Ricciardo exclaimed after his maiden victory. “We achieved a great result today with first and third – so let’s enjoy it – but we will still have some work to do also.

“I was looking for opportunities. He was driving well and wasn’t making any mistakes, and realistically I needed a bit of a mistake from him because they were just getting off the corner so well.

“But then he (Perez) got quite close to Nico and perhaps just overshot the braking a little bit in the last chicane. I managed to just stay with him on the exit, get the tow and use the DRS.

“I knew we were strong braking into Turn 1; we were really quick into there so once I had the outside line free I just basically went in and made it work. That was the place I wanted to do it – but I was trying all the time and it was just then that the opportunity came – but I wasn’t really holding back!”