{"id":139777,"date":"2021-10-06T07:58:01","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T07:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=139777"},"modified":"2021-10-06T10:01:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T10:01:04","slug":"ricciardo-hails-aussie-ace-in-fight-against-f1-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=139777","title":{"rendered":"Ricciardo hails Aussie ace in fight against F1 snub"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren<\/a>'s Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> has hailed fellow Australian Oscar Piastri<\/a> as "the whole package", as anticipation grows around the prodigy's push to join the Formula 1<\/a> grid.<\/p>\n

While China's Guanyu Zhou is all but certain to partner Valtteri Bottas at Alfa Romeo in 2022<\/a>, taking up the only remaining vacant seat on next year's grid, Piastri is likely to receive his shot at Formula 1 in 2023.<\/p>\n

Piastri even told Wide World of Sports in September<\/a> that, although he'd be "very happily surprised" if he got the Alfa Romeo call-up, he was "not really in the frame" and "not confident".<\/p>\n

Piastri, who's leading the Formula 2 championship with six races remaining, is likely to become a 2022 Alpine reserve driver and replace veteran Fernando Alonso<\/a> the following year.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Melbourne Storm trio 'lucky' to escape with lenient sanctions, says Gallen<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

When asked for his thoughts on Piastri's journey in an interview with McLaren teammate Lando Norris<\/a> on F1TV, Ricciardo gave the 20-year-old a huge rap.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I am really excited to see… Oscar do well," Ricciardo said.<\/p>\n

"I know what it was like for me when Mark Webber was in F1. When I joined the grid he was still there. It was cool, it was really a cool feeling and (I was) obviously proud to represent Australia.<\/p>\n

"Oscar's been killing it this year. (He has) really good race craft, as well. (He) seems to have the whole package right now."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Matildas great reveals 'toxic culture'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Hamilton<\/p>\n

Zhou is likely to take up Alfa Romeo's spare seat in 2022 despite the fact he's second to Piastri in this year's Formula 2 championship, trailing 178 points to 142.<\/p>\n

In another indication of Piastri's superior class, the Victorian is leading Zhou despite the fact it's his first year in Formula 2 and his rival's third.<\/p>\n

Piastri and Zhou are both Alpine academy drivers.<\/p>\n

Only two drivers have won consecutive Formula 3 (or GP3) and Formula 2 (or GP2) titles as a rookie: Charles Leclerc<\/a>, who's now thriving with Ferrari<\/a> in Formula 1, and George Russell<\/a>, who's now impressing in the same class with Williams and is set to drive for Mercedes<\/a> from 2022.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The successful transitions of Leclerc and Russell from Formula 2 to Formula 1 have led many experts to question why Piastri is yet to make the jump to the top class.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Brazilian football player arrested for kicking referee in head<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Ex-Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok said he'd be disappointed if the chance to compete in the world championship sidestepped Piastri.<\/p>\n

"I really rate Oscar. Honestly, I watched him in F3 but then what he did in F2 \u2013 Prema were behind the curb at the start of the season at testing and I think he worked really hard to bring them into contention," Chandhok said on the In the Fast Lane<\/em> podcast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I hope that Oscar gets a decent test program at least with Alpine next year and they keep him on the books. But they need to keep him sharp; that's the hardest thing. If you take a year out from racing… it's tough to keep the fire burning. Oscar is still young so it will be easier, but I really hope that he's still driving lots of things to keep him sharp so that if the opportunity opens in 2023 he can take it.<\/p>\n

"You know people like that who are delivering results on track deserve opportunities, young drivers like that, and I'd hate to see him not get a chance in F1 because I think he deserves it."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo has hailed fellow Australian Oscar Piastri as "the whole package", as anticipation grows around the prodigy's push to join the Formula 1 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139777"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139777"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139779,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139777\/revisions\/139779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}