Is Oscar Piastri quickly becoming Australia's biggest sports star?

Oscar Piastri’s incredible Formula One season continues to deliver as the youngster stormed home to his second career Grand Prix win in Baku on Monday morning (AEST).

At just 23-years-old, Piastri has taken the sport by storm, sitting in fourth place in the Drivers’ Championship in just his second season, only 32 points behind his teammate and McLaren’s number one driver, Lando Norris.

With his immense rise to success expanding over waters, it begs the question as to just how big Oscar Piastri can be, and with the incredible reach of the motor sport, journalists Gerard Whateley and Robert Craddock believe he may already be the nations’ largest non-Olympic sports person.

Craddock was firm on his belief, telling SEN’s Whateley just how incredible Piastri’s rise has been, with reference to his phenomenal drive at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Whateley: “Outside of our Olympic cohort, this is Australia’s biggest sports star.”

Craddock: “He is and getting bigger.

“He is the leading points scorer from the last seven races in the entire competition. That is extraordinary from a 23-year-old.

“That pass of (Charles) Leclerc, the daring, daredevil, buccaneering, cavaliering pass on the inside, was the highlight of his entire career so far.

“That’s his gold stud moment and wasn’t it interesting because this victory comes only days after McLaren had publicly announced that his job for the rest of the season is to be a support driver to Lando Norris.

“In other words, they want Norris to be the main man and anything you can do Oscar, to make him look better, is much appreciated, and he sort of, not grudgingly accepted it but it was a bit of a downer for him, and the roles were reversed.

“Norris had to shepherd the rest of the field almost behind Piastri, and did it quite well, helped him to victory.

“That’s the little sub-plot here, behind the main story.

“After the Olympics, a couple of our journalists went to Monaco and, believe it or not, who did they run into in a coffee shop? Mark Webber, Piastri’s manager.

“Webber just said how much enjoyment he was getting about managing this supremely down to earth, unpretentious sort of lad who’s the talk of world motor racing.”

With seven races to go and McLaren now tightly leading the Constructors’ Championship, Piastri will have plenty of work to do to follow team orders and aid Lando Norris in closing the 59-point gap to Max Verstappen.

As for his own success, at just 23 years-of-age there really is no limit to just how successful Piastri can be.