McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl believes his team will be able to get the most out of Oscar Piastri when he joins the team in 2023.
It announced that McLaren holds a valid contract for 2023 and 2024, meaning Piastri will drive alongside Lando Norris from next year.
Ironically, Piastri’s path to Woking is reminiscent of Daniel Ricciardo’s, the driver who will make way for last year’s Formula 2 champion.
Ricciardo drive for Renault in 2019 and 2020 before switching to McLaren.
He’s struggled to come to terms with the unique requirements of his machinery ever since, culminating in a mutually agreed early termination.
Seidl has played down the potential that Piastri will face similar struggles to what Ricciardo has, given their similar paths from Woking via Enstone.
“I think we need to completely separate the two topics,” Seidl began.
“We have communicated everything regarding Daniel last week, I don’t want to go into this. Again, in the end, is a shared responsibility that unfortunately didn’t make it work, or didn’t achieve the results we wanted to achieve.
“Regarding Oscar, very confident that he’s the right guy to have in the car next year, next to Lando.
“I think we have shown also as a team that we are a good place to start for a rookie. I’m fully aware of the challenge that is [ahead].
“I’m fully aware that we also need to give him the right, let’s say, amount of time also in order to build it up.”
The signing of Piastri will see Norris take on a more senior position within the team.
He has been the lesser experienced of McLaren’s drivers throughout his Formula 1 career to date.
“We have Lando, who is in his fifth year of Formula 1 then,” Seidl said.
“[He] has shown in the last year through the steps he also made that he has everything he needs to become one of the best ones in the sport, knowing that he will still improve – only being in year four now – which is an exciting outlook,” Seidl said.
“And then having a rookie like Oscar next to him, who has shown that he has a lot of potential, is an exciting outlook.
“I’m looking forward to work with this driver line-up in the next year.”
Seidl believes Piastri can succeed with McLaren, suggesting the environment within the team is conducive to developing young drivers.
“I think with the team I have in place, [I] feel quite comfortable that we know what a young driver needs in the car, outside of the car, in terms of environment in order to get prepared as well as possible,” he observed.
“The objective is clear.
“We will put in a lot of hard work, together with Oscar, with a clear agenda of what we want to achieve when he actually starts his first race in Bahrain.
“I’m quite confident that we can manage this.”
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