Tapas 3: Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri is one of the emerging stars of the aussie racing collecting titles in CIK Stars of Karting, taking second in his first Australian Nationals in Junior Clubman, plus wins in the City of Melbourne Titles, the Victorian State Titles and South Australian State Titles, and claimed third in the X30 Junior IAME Final in 2014. Oscar has starred in the CIK/WSK OK Junior karting category this season and comes into the F4UAE Championship following a strong performance at the CIK FIA world junior championship in Bahrain. At only 15 years old, he just signed with Dragon F4 for the three incoming races of the UAE Championship to prepare his first car campaign in Europe. 2017 is a year full of possibilities and challenges, which Oscar can capitalize to keep climbing in his career to the motorsport top series.

Q: What are you racing this year? What do you expect from the next one?

A: This year I raced karts in the WSK Super Master Series, CIK FIA European Championships and CIK FIA World Championships. Next year I will move into F4.

Q: How was your starting career? Was it tough?

A: I was quite good in my first ever race as I had a lot of practice, but passing and learning to race was still tough.

Q: What would you say about your best racing moment?

A: This year I finished 6th in the CIK FIA World Championships in the OK-Junior category.

Q: When did you start with simracing?

A: I started sim racing in about 2011.

Q: Is simracing a useful tool for your training?

A: It is hard to say, but I think that is good to keep sharp if you can’t get onto a real track.

Q: What would you consider the most accurate sim out there?

A: I have only used iRacing and Kart Racing Pro but iRacing is incredibly realistic.

Q: What do you miss about real life racing in simulators?

A: In sim racing there is no sense of risk or being scared to crash, you can just push reset if you crash, you can’t push reset in real life.

Q: What is it your most appreciated skill when it comes to real racing?

A: I would say my ability to feel what the car is doing and make fast corrections is one of my strong points.

Q: What do you expect for the future in terms of simracing technology?

A: I don’t know what will come in the sim racing future, but I imagine virtual reality will be more heavily incorporated.

Q: What hardware are you using at this moment?

A: I currently use a Simxperience motion sim with 3 screens. Not sure what PC or graphics card.

Q: What would you say about the current level of real racing drivers? Who is your favorite?
A: I think that each category has their own good drivers. In terms of F1, Daniel Ricciardo is my favourite.

Q: Any basic advice to real racing newcomers? 
A: Make sure you are having fun first, then the success will come.

We just want to thank Oscar for his time to do this little interview with us. Good luck this year Oscar!