GrandPrix247 2023 Rookie of the Year: Oscar Piastri

That wasn't the ideal way for Piastri to start his career in the top flight, as a rookie needs to take time to find his feet in F1 and focus and adjust and learn in an environment that should be as stress-free as possible.

But that was not the case for Piastri, who was in the spotlight even before he drove one lap in an F1 car, after ditching Alpine, who planned to have him replace Fernando Alonso and join McLaren, both teams going into a legal battle to secure his services, McLaren CEO Brown beating Otmar Szafnauer in the end.

There was also the fact that Brown had to pay Daniel Ricciardo to vacate his seat for his younger compatriot to join which made the stakes even higher.

So highly-hyped Piastri had to deliver and prove that his talent was worth all the trouble McLaren went through to put him in one of their cars, and to make matters more tricky, his benchmark in the other McLaren was none other than Lando Norris.

And to make things worse, McLaren turned up in 2023 with a lousy race car amid instability with Andreas Seidl leaving to Sauber and Technical Director James Key given the boot.

But Piastri delivered despite all the hurdles. He more than lived up to the hype too. He qualified in the top ten from only his second race with McLaren (eighth in Jeddah), and went on to reach Q3 in qualifying in 13 more occasions.

He was never destroyed by Norris and kept the Briton honest, and once McLaren sorted out the car following their Austria upgrade, Piastri's talents shone even brighter.

He got the updated MCL60 at Silverstone, and qualified third, racing to fourth and missing out on the podium only after a Safety Car put him at a disadvantage.

After that, he sustained a strong qualifying performance, but as he pointed out with admirable humility, he was working on improving his race craft, particularly his tyre management skills.

His first podium was delivered in Japan when he finished third around the formidable Suzuka and followed that up with second in Qatar the following race, but the highlight remained his win of the Sprint Race at Lusail, where he beat Max Verstappen.

What made Piastri more impressive was the calmness in which he went about his business, and every time he achieved a great result, his radio messages to the team on the cool-down lap seemed to be coming from a seasoned racer, not a 22-year-old rookie.

Now to be fair, Piastri's talent was obvious from his junior categories' record winning Formula 3 and Formula 2 Titles from the first time asked, but the McLaren vs Alpine squabble around him put him in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

However, he impressively kept his head down and shut out all the noise around him to deliver an imposing rookie season, and for that, he is GrandPrix247's rookie of the 2023 F1 season.