A few days ago, Australian Formula 1 driver Oscar Piastri won his third race in a row, at the Miami Grand Prix. Although not a Formula 1 historian by any means, I was hard pressed to think of the last time any Australian driver won three consecutive Formula 1 races. Only a few notable Australian Formula 1 drivers come to mind since the last Australian Formula 1 Wortd Champion Driver, Alan Jones (1980): Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo. Looking at the records of those three drivers, it seems only Mr. Jones won three races in a row (1979), so it has been almost 50 years since this was last achieved by an Australian driver.
It is also notable that Mr. Piastri has now secured five podiums in a row (i.e., finished the race within the top three positions) in a row. For this achievement, we only need to go back to 2017, where Mr. Ricciardo managed five podiums in a row.
Unsurprisingly, there is some excitement in Australia about the possibility of Mr. Piastri becoming this year’s Formula 1 World Champion Driver. He has the benefit of driving what is clearly the best car—the McLaren MCL39—but we are only a quarter of the way through the season, and there is the non-trivial consideration that defending World Champion Driver Max Verstappen and several other top drivers are in the field. It always looked like it would be an interesting season this year, and it has certainly turned out to be, so far.