His performances that year caught the eye of Renault, which monitored him as he moved up to Formula 3 and immediately adapted to win on his debut. That season was spent fighting Logan Sargeant and Théo Pourchaire for the title; a fight that came down to the final round in Mugello.
The Australian went nowhere near the podium that weekend, but showed the talent, grit — and luck — of a champion after starting 16th in the first race and then finishing out of the points in 11th.
That put him and team-mate Sargeant level on points going into the final race of the season, but Piastri started 11th on the grid, behind Sargeant in fifth and Pourchaire, still in title contention, who started eighth.
Piastri made up four places at the start before a safety car, triggered by a crash involving Sargeant which put him out of the race. Piastri should have then strolled to the championship, but he fell to tenth at the restart as Pourchaire began making progress, moving up to third.
It would have made the Frenchman champion hadn’t Piastri persisted and fought his way up to seventh to claim the title by just three points.
That brought him a contract with the Alpine Academy and a promotion to F2 where he once again won on his debut weekend.
“It was always a two-year plan, but after a couple of rounds, we knew he was there,” said his Prema team boss René Rosin in 2021.
“He never gets into a panic, he never gets worried, he always listens to what people are telling him to do, and he tries to adapt as best as possible.
“He is very calm, very technically dedicated and an amazing guy to work with. We were expecting him to be a frontrunner, but maybe not to fight for the championship.”