Alpine’s former non-executive director Alain Prost has recently opened up about the key role he played in Oscar Piastri’s journey to becoming an F1 driver. The former world champion also revealed that he endorses the Australian as the battle for the 2025 Drivers’ Championship rages on between the McLaren teammates.
Piastri, now in his third season in F1, leads the Drivers’ standings at the halfway point of the 2025 season with 5 victories under his belt. However, Lando Norris, his McLaren teammate, is trailing him by only 8 points. The gap has shrunk from 22 points after the Brit’s back-to-back wins in Austria and Great Britain.
Prost was key to Piastri joining the Alpine Academy
Oscar Piastri joined the Alpine Academy in 2020 after winning the Formula Renault Eurocup championship the previous year. The partnership unfortunately was short-lived, and the Melbourne native started racing for McLaren in 2023. In the meantime, his controversial contract dispute with the French outfit gained traction with the public following his now-famous social media post.
In a conversation with Karun Chandhok at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Alain Prost revealed that he had played an instrumental role in convincing Renault to add Piastri to their Alpine Academy roster. The 70-year-old also added that he has followed the seven-time race winner’s progress since his junior formulae days.
“I know Oscar [Piastri] much better because I was the one to push Renault to bring him in the academy a long time ago. They did not want to.
“I saw him driving in Formula 3 or even 4, and then Formula 2.”
Prost commends Piastri’s clever racecraft and backs him in 2025 title battle
During his F1 career, Alain Prost earned the moniker “The Professor” for his intellectual approach to racing. In a similar manner, Oscar Piastri is currently known to maintain a smooth, relaxed style behind the wheel.
Prost touched on Piastri’s wheel-to-wheel abilities and claimed that he saw a bit of himself in the current F1 championship leader. Remarking that some drivers can hit a ceiling if they rely solely on their driving capabilities, the four-time world champion also implied that the 24-year-old has an edge in the ongoing F1 championship battle owing to his intelligent manoeuvres when overtaking.
Furthermore, admitting that he is not too familiar with Norris, Prost nonetheless proclaimed that the best driver overall should emerge as the F1 Drivers’ Champion in 2025.
“I like the way he [Piastri] behaves, you know, a little bit like me—thinking about when to do the right manoeuvre for overtaking and being a little bit more clever.
“I like him, you know. You never know what’s going to happen, but this type of driver, normally they can make a progression.
“With some, if it’s only the driving skill, sometimes they are in a plateau. But I don’t know Lando [Norris] very much. But honestly, for this type of championship, the best should win, and that’s it.”
