Oscar Worthy

Australia is all-in as McLaren driver OSCAR PIASTRI prepares for a maiden world championship tilt in just his third season of Formula One…

Oscar Piastri is Australia’s best shot at winning the Formula One World Championship since Alan Jones in 1980. The McLaren young gun has everything you need to slay in F1, including searing, prodigious speed and a razor-sharp, killer instinct to take the results from rivals, whether World Champion or rookie. And 2025 could just be his time to lift a maiden crown, with Piastri gunning to take the fight to his highly rated teammate Lando Norris.
“The preparation for both of us has been preparing for a world championship fight and I think it would be naive of us to go into the season preparing for anything less. So, that’s always the way you want to prepare things,” Piastri says.

Piastri took his first win for the year at round two in China – a very controlled, dominant drive that somewhat made up for a heartbreaking home Grand Prix in Melbourne, where an off-track excursion in treacherous conditions saw him finish ninth. He was then third in Japan, behind teammate Lando Norris, in a tough, processional race.

But, the 23-year-old will have plenty of local support as he goes after his dreams, and not just from those trackside or watching on TV, with his McLaren team sponsored by Melbourne-founded brand Airwallex, which is a leading global financial platform that accelerates the team’s cross-border payments.

Airwallex offers trusted solutions to manage everything from payments, treasury, and spend management through to embedded finance. With its proprietary infrastructure, Airwallex supports over 150,000 businesses globally and is trusted by brands such as Brex, Rippling, Navan, Qantas, SHEIN, and many more. At McLaren, which competes at events all over the world, and has factory suppliers all over Europe, requiring multiple currencies, Airwallex ensure the papaya team operates quickly and efficiently – just like it does in races. But, in F1, nothing can be guaranteed until you get to the chequered flag. And Piastri is taking each race as it comes.

“I think it’s very, very early to think about the title, clearly,” Piastri said after China. “But, I think no matter how short or long the championship is, you need to maximise the car you have every race. We saw last year that [Red Bull’s Max] Verstappen was able to win the championship by capitalising on the car he had in the first part of the year. And he obviously did a good job through the rest of the year as well, but he built the [points] gap when he had the ability to build the gap,” he continues. “You never know when someone’s going to find some [extra] speed with an upgrade or find something in how they operate the car. There are pretty fine margins out there.” McLaren, though, is not prioritising either of its drivers for the crown – and that works to Piastri’s advantage, with the Australian unafraid of anyone, as we saw with his ruthless first lap pass on Norris at last year’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

“We’d like to go for the [F1] Constructors’ and the Drivers’ World Championship,” says McLaren Racing’s CEO Zak Brown. “And why not be greedy and have that be a one-two and let Lando and Oscar decide who’s one and two.” As McLaren’s top man, Brown is expecting an all-in brawl on the track with even more teams capable of winning races. “This [2025] season should be epic and even closer than last year,” he adds. “I am anticipating eight different winners. [In 2024] we had seven [different drivers win], and four different teams. I wouldn’t be surprised with how competitive it is.
“You know, every weekend last year, while the top four teams were always at the front, there always seemed to be someone that was able to kind of disrupt [them]. So, I expect that to be happening again. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there were more than four teams that won. So, I think we’re in store for an epic Formula One season.”

Shifting Perspectives at the Australian Grand Prix

There was no shortage of thrilling sculpted performance art in Melbourne ahead of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, with leading Melbourne-founded global financial platform, Airwallex launching its ‘Shifted Perspectives’ campaign with the McLaren F1 Team and acclaimed First Nations artist, Reko Rennie. Over 200 guests attended Airwallex’s glittering Shifted Perspectives event ahead of the Grand Prix for the highly anticipated unveiling of the McLaren Artura featuring Rennie’s bold design and a fireside chat with the artist and hometown hero, Oscar Piastri.
An Official Partner of the McLaren F1 Team, Airwallex elevated the partnership through an exciting creative collaboration with Rennie, an internationally renowned Kamilaroi artist, whose bold, thought-provoking work explores Indigenous identity and modern urban culture. Rennie, whose vision for this project embodied the concept of ‘shifting perspectives,’ used camouflage and graphic diamond patterns to cover the car – with the diamond shape one of his most utilised motifs, which pays homage to his Kamilaroi heritage in a form similar to a family crest.

The hand-drawn symbols and repetitive patterning were used to subvert romantic ideologies of Aboriginal identity. His bespoke design transformed the McLaren Artura Coupe – a high-performance hybrid supercar – into a striking sculptural installation, blending art and performance, as well as Airwallex and McLaren’s spirit of innovation. “At Airwallex, we’re always looking for ways to push boundaries and create unexpected moments that provoke thought,” says Jon Stona, VP, Global Marketing, Airwallex.

“Seeing Reko’s design come to life on the McLaren Artura was a special moment. Just like McLaren challenges conventions on the track, and Oscar Piastri takes on the world’s best in F1, we want to encourage Australian businesses to shift their perspectives, take bold steps and scale globally.” “Unveiling this design in front of a live audience has been incredible,” Rennie says. “As a lover of both art and sport, the crowd reaction affirmed how both can intersect to create something truly unique. At the core, this collaboration is a celebration of innovation, heritage and pushing boundaries, which is what I try to embody in my work, and Airwallex and McLaren represent.”