Oscar Piastri has revealed that he has been driving for over a month with a broken rib. The Australian racer scored his maiden Grand Prix victory in Hungary but did so while nursing an injury that was, at the time, being kept under wraps.
The 23-year-old is enjoying a stellar sophomore campaign in F1 and heads into the summer break with a win and two second-place finishes in his last four races. However, despite the positive momentum behind him, Piastri will have been glad to usher in the shutdown.
In an Instagram post to his 2.6 million followers, Piastri posted an x-ray of his fractured rib, with the caption: “First part of the season done. First GP victory. First broken bone. Rib’s enjoying the break.”
While no date for the injury was supplied by Piastri, the text on his ultrasound scan attributed the test to July 8. This indicates that the McLaren star may have picked up the knock during the weekend at Silverstone, given the British Grand Prix took place the day prior.
This means that, at a minimum, Piastri was driving with a broken rib during the races in Hungary and Belgium, adding another level of prestige to his maiden Grand Prix victory, which came at the expense of team-mate Lando Norris in Hungary.
Racing through injuries is nothing new for F1 drivers. At the season opener in 2023, Lance Stroll guided his Aston Martin machine to a P6 finish while recovering from two broken wrists and a broken toe that he suffered while cycling during pre-season.
Fernando Alonso also experienced a similar sensation when he competed in the 2022 Australian Grand Prix. The two-time world champion broke small bones in his wrist after crashing his Alpine at Turn 11 due to a hydraulics fault that was out of his control.
Fortunately for Piastri, the summer shutdown has allowed him some much-needed recovery time as he prepares for a critical final 10 races of the season. Everything is still to play for in the McLaren camp, with the Woking-based outfit just 42 points behind Red Bull in the battle for the Constructors’ Championship title.
Piastri also has something to fight for in the Drivers’ Championship. The Melbourne-born racer trails third-placed Charles Leclerc by 10 points ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, while team-mate Lando Norris is only 32 points clear.
