‘Looking Forward to Australia Hopefully Winning Ashes’: McLaren’s Oscar Piastri – News18

Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri is keeping track of the ongoing Ashes Test series between England and Australia. Piastri, who is currently in Montreal for Canadian GP, is hoping Australia to retain the Ashes after outclassing India in the World Test Championship Final last week at the Oval, London.

Piastri, who was born in Melbourne, said that as a kid he wanted to be a cricketer and used to follow legendary players like Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee.

“When I was a kid, that’s what I wanted to be – an Australian cricketer or a footie player in Australia,” Piastri told the media on Thursday.

The McLaren driver said he looked up to the cricketers before racing and still follows the team.

“I looked up to guys like Ricky [Ponting], also some of the bowlers at the time. I liked Mitchell Johnson for example, Brett Lee. I’ve looked up to a lot of those guys before racing and even still enjoy watching them play. Looking forward to the Aussies hopefully winning the Ashes,” he added.

Piastri recently finished 10th in Spanish GP and his focus is now to improve his performance in the Canadian GP this weekend. He looked good in the practice ahead of the big race but it is still going to be tricky for the 22-year-old due to lack of experience at the Canadian GP track.

Piastri said it was great to see Australia beat India to win the World Test Championship and is now hopeful of Pat Cummins and Co. retaining the Ashes.

“I think we’ll be good. We obviously had a successful test against India, so we’re now official world champions, which is nice. Hopefully we can retain the Ashes, I think it’ll be a good fight, but I’m confident in us Aussies,” he added.

Meanwhile, England declared the first innings for 393/8 on Day 1 which was a bold move from skipper Ben Stokes as he took to take a couple of  Australia wickets in the final few overs of the day. Despite Stuart Broad taking the new ball on Friday, Warner survived to be eight not out in a total of 14-0 at stumps.