Rosin: Piastri is one of the best who played for Prema

Anyone who has ever worked with Oscar Piastri notes that one of his most important qualities – besides speed, of course – is composure.

The fact that the 2021 Formula 2 champion and now McLaren driver manages to keep his composure in all situations was immediately noticed by Tom Stallard, his new race engineer. It is this quality that René Rosin, the head of Prema Racing, who knows Piastri from the youth series, emphasizes.

The Australian raced for Prema in both F3 and F2, winning the title at the first attempt on both occasions. In 2019, when Rosin met him, Oscar was 18 years old and had just won the Formula Renault Eurocup.

“He came to our office with his people and we had a chat,” Rosin recalls. – I told him I was ready to invite the best Formula Renault drivers to our F3 team. Oscar was recommended to me by R-Ace GP, his team at the time, and we decided to work together on tests.

In tests, everything went well from the start. He acted very calmly and thoughtfully – we knew from his former team that Oscar likes to dig into things thoroughly, and we were convinced of that. He is a normal boy, strong on his feet, who knows, he may still have a long way to go. But already at the very first tests we realized that he had a great future.

This was confirmed in Formula 3 and Formula 2. In 2020, when restrictions were introduced due to the pandemic, we traveled less and all races took place back to back. But we spent more time together at our base in Italy. Working with Piastri was very easy. He quickly connected with everyone from the team management to the mechanics and it helped immensely as everyone worked together for a common goal.

If in F3 Oscar only won the title in the last race, and never started from pole position in a season, then in F2 everything was different: in five of the eight stages he came out on top in qualifying and eventually set the title safe for schedule.

“Formula 2 it just exploded! continued Rosin. “He won poles at Silverstone, Monza, Sochi, Jeddah and Abu Dhabi and it was amazing. Oscar is one of the best drivers who has gone through Formula 2 with us. In 2020 and 2021, when he drove for our team, I remembered the times of collaboration with Charles Leclerc, Antonio Giovinazzi and Pierre Gasly. They were partners and all three tried to get us to achieve our goals – we went on to win both championship standings for two years in a row.

In Formula 1 he still has a lot to learn, but Oscar is young, he has a fighting spirit and I have no doubt that he will adapt quickly. He knows how to handle pressure very well – at least it seems that way from the outside. He is a very calm and mature rider and always knows how to keep a cool head.

Oscar never rests on his laurels, he always tries to achieve the perfect result. This is also one of its best features. Once in such a competitive environment as Formula 1, he will give his best and improve all aspects of driving.