"He said, 'Everybody loves Daniel Ricciardo, that's going to be a problem'": Oscar Piastri's mother recalls driver's reaction on signing with McLaren

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri's mother Nicole said she was shocked when she got to know that her son would be replacing Daniel Ricciardo on the team for the 2023 season. She also shared her son's reaction to her professing her "love" for the latter, on a recent podcast appearance.

The young Aussie driver's signing with the Woking-based outfit would go down as one of the most controversial F1 signings in history given the 23-year-old was an Alpine junior.

The French team had announced him as their driver for the 2023 season after Fernando Alonso announced his move to Aston Martin to replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel. However, Piastri vehemently denied signing a deal with Alpine in a tweet and it was later announced that he would replace fellow Aussie at McLaren.

While appearing on the Red Flag Podcast, Piastri's mother Nicole shared her initial reaction at the time upon learning that he would replace Ricciardo, saying:

"I'm like 'oh my God McLaren oh my God' 'cause that was totally new to me. I did not see that coming, right... and I was like ' oh my God that's amazing!' and then it dawned on me what that meant."

She added her son Oscar's reaction to her comment about Ricciardo:

"I was like 'oh no wait, oh my God...' and he's nodding, and I said 'oh my God Daniel! I love Daniel!' ... He's like just deadpan he's like 'yep everybody loves Daniel, yeah that's...that's going to be a problem." (46:20)

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Oscar Piastri reveals the difference in personality to Daniel Ricciardo

McLaren driver Oscar Paistri stated that he had a different personality compared to Daniel Ricciardo as he was an introvert and wasn't as outgoing as his 35-year-old compatriot.

Speaking with Wide World of Sports, the young Aussie driver said in his first Australian GP last year:

"For me, I've never tried to be anyone that I'm not. And yeah, you're right, Daniel and I are very, very different people – which is absolutely fine. I've tried to learn as much as I can, like you said, kind of stay under the radar a bit I guess and have my talking be on the track.

"I think that's always kind of the way I've done it. I'm quite a quiet person and sort of introverted person anyway. It's kind of just the way I go about things and about life in general. But yeah, it's nice to have both of us there and I've had some really good conversations with him through the year and he's been very supportive."

Piastri's signing turned out to be a key move for McLaren as in his second season, he has reached a consistent level of performances and results that Ricciardo was not able to manage in his two-year stint with the British team and constantly struggled with the car.