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Nicole Piastri isn’t expecting to see much of her son during the Australian Grand Prix this weekend.
“He came to lunch on Monday and that’s about it,” she says of Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri, who placed third in the drivers’ championship last year.
Oscar Piastri embraces his mother, Nicole, after his win in Baku.Credit: Getty Images
It’s not that Nicole and the McLaren driver aren’t close. It’s just that despite the race being held in his home town, Oscar will stay with his team.
“He’s very closely guarded this weekend. Not even his mum can get near him,” Nicole says of the 24-year-old who is now aiming to become the first Australian since Alan Jones in 1980 to claim the world championship.
Speaking at the Victorian Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Thursday morning, Nicole told the crowd it was difficult being away from her son when he was in his teens.
One of the most sobering times occurred when Oscar was 16, and racing in the F4 in the UK, accompanied by his father Chris, Nicole’s former husband.
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri during the second practice session at Albert Park on Friday.Credit: AP
Nicole was in Phillip Island with the couple’s three daughters – Hattie, Edie and Mae – and had stayed up late to watch the race in the middle of the night when she received a text from Chris saying, “Look, there’s been an incident”.
“As soon as I Googled it, footage came up from Billy’s [Monger] camera of him going into the back at full speed, into the back of the stationary car on the track that he didn’t see because of the rain. And the footage was so disturbing that I vomited.”
The disastrous crash saw Monger ultimately have both of his legs amputated, and after being told the driver had been crying out for his mother as he was cut out of his car, Nicole flew to the UK to be with Oscar for his next race.
When she picked him up from boarding school, she asked her son how he felt about racing on the weekend. “‘I’m in the car every second weekend’,” she says he told her. “And so I thought it’s best for me not to put that anxiety into his head.”
Click here to read what happened when Netflix came to film for Drive to Survive at Piastri’s childhood home.
