BIOGRAPHY
Before getting his career underway in karts at the age of 10, Oscar had previously dabbled in motorsport courtesy of radio controlled racing.
Finishing runner-up in the 2014 Australian National Sprint Kart Championship and third in the 2015 Australian Kart Championship (KF3), Oscar headed to Europe where he contested various karting championships with Ricky Flynn Motorsport.
In 2016 he finished 6th in the CIK-FIA World Junior Championships in Bahrain, he subsequently made his single-seater debut in selected rounds of the Formula 4 UAE Championship, claiming two podiums to take sixth in the championship.
The following year he contested the British F4 championship with Arden ending the season runner-up, while finding time to also contest two rounds of the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC with the British team owned by the Horner family.
2018 saw him contesting the Formula Renault Eurocup and selected rounds of the Formula Renault NEC with Arden, finishing eighth overall in the former. At season end he took part in the post-season GP3 test in Abu Dhabi with Trident Motorsport.
For 2019 he made the switch to French outfit R-ace GP and immediately set about establishing himself.
Claiming his first victory at Silverstone, he followed this up with a second win the following day. A further victory at Spa saw the youngster claim the championship after taking a win and fourth place at the final round at Yas Marina.
In 2020 and 2021 he claimed successive titles in F3 and F2 - both at the first attempt - and both with Prema.
The F2 title saw Oscar emulate Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg, Charles Leclerc and George Russell, as the only drivers to win the GP2/F2 title at the first attempt, while also becoming the fifth driver after Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Leclerc and Russell to win the GP3/F3 title, and then the GP2/F2 title the following year, and the first driver to win three consecutive F1 feeder series' championships, with his 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup title.
After winning the F3 championship, Oscar was recruited to the Renault Sport Academy and subsequently tested for the Renault F1 team in Bahrain along with fellow academy drivers Christian Lundgaard and Guanyu Zhou. He also took part in the 2020 post-season F1 test in Abu Dhabi.
Having won the F2 title in impressive style - 6 wins and 11 podiums - Oscar was named Alpine's reserve driver for the 2022 season, performing a similar role for McLaren.
Over the course of the year Oscar took part in a number of private tests at a variety of different tracks in a 2021 car for Alpine, though it was subsequently revealed that he also took part in a similar test with McLaren.
Earlier in the year, McLaren boss, Zak Brown had commented that Daniel Ricciardo had not lived up to expectations, leading to speculation that the Australian's days were numbered.
On 2 August, the summer break barely underway, Alpine issued a press release stating that Oscar had been promoted to a race seat for 2023 alongside Esteban Ocon, this coming a day after Fernando Alonso had announced his shock defection to Aston Martin.
However, no sooner had Alpine made the announcement than Oscar took to social media to announce that the French team had jumped the gun and that nothing had been signed.
At which point McLaren joined in the fun as the wrangle over Oscar's services headed to the Contract Recognition Board.
The board found in favour of McLaren and highlighted the shambolic nature of Alpine's approach to things, the French team, having procrastinated over Alonso's contract having subsequently lost the two-time world champion and subsequently the services of a potential champion.
On 2 September, Oscar was confirmed as teammate to Lando Norris at McLaren and while it is understandable that there is much excitement surrounding this clearly very talented youngster, for some the whole Alpine affair left a bad taste.
That said, if he lives up to expectation the events of the summer of 2022 will soon be forgotten.
