Oscar Piastri has his say on comparisons to McLaren icon Alain Prost

Oscar Piastri admitted being flattered at comparisons to four-time World Champion and McLaren legend Alain Prost, but highlighted a couple of differences – mostly down to the difficulty to compare eras.

The French driver said that he sees shades of himself in the young Australian, as Piastri and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris do battle for the World Championship.

Oscar Piastri responds to Alain Prost comparisons

While the nickname ‘Petit Prost’ was handed to Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar in certain quarters ahead of his Formula 1 debut, the former McLaren, Ferrari and Williams driver looked to Piastri when comparing a current driver to his style.

Prost was known through his Formula 1 career to balance speed with pragmatism, racing with the World Championship in mind and protecting leads when he needed to do so.

Prost claimed at July’s Goodwood Festival of Speed that he had been the person to push Renault to sign Piastri to the team’s junior programme, prior to his well-publicised move to McLaren in 2023.

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“I saw him driving in Formula 3, or even before, and then Formula 2,” the Frenchman said of Piastri.

“I like the way he behaves, a little bit like me, thinking about when to do the right manoeuvre for overtaking and being a little bit more clever.”

Speaking to Autosport, Piastri was presented with Prost’s comments and, while “very cool” to hear and he can understand the comparison, the current title contender thinks the differences with reliability in Prost’s time make it difficult to directly compare styles – though he admitted how they go racing is “probably pretty similar.”

“I’ve had that comparison from a few people with Prost,” said the McLaren driver. “I see it in some ways.

“I think it’s very different. Back in the day, there were a lot more reliability concerns, a lot more driver-induced reliability issues as well.

“I think in some ways it’s quite different, but the mentality in some ways is the same, trying to be consistent.

“When you’re fighting for first and second, it’s a seven-point difference, but if you don’t finish the race, it’s potentially 18 or 25 points you lose – so you do still have to make sure you finish the races, be consistent and not take unnecessary risks.

“I think that side of things is still the same, but probably the reasoning for it is quite different. The mentality is probably pretty similar, which has worked pretty well in the past.”

Piastri leads the Drivers’ Championship by nine points from Norris at the summer break stage, with 10 races until the end of the 2025 season.

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