大象传媒

The Tailenders have met a few quicks in their time - Courtney Walsh had serious wheels. But their latest guest will take a bit of beating.

Greg, Jimmy and Felix recorded a special podcast episode at the headquarters of McLaren in Woking, where they met Formula One driver - and huge cricket fan - Oscar Piastri.

In a fascinating interview, Aussie ace Oscar reveals some extraordinary insights into life beneath the halo unit, including what he thinks about during a race and whether any of us could drive an F1 car.

Oscar also shares his deep love of cricket, which was the first sport he dreamed of playing professionally: ‘I failed’, he confesses.

Well, you failed upwards, Oscar!

Plus there’s exclusive analysis of an impromptu match that they played together on the McLaren lawn, featuring Jimmy’s first return to action since his retirement announcement (good news: he was rapid).

Here’s what happened when Oscar Piastri met the Tailenders...

Oscar might be only in his second season in F1, but he’s already touted by experts as being the ‘real deal’. For Jimmy, cricket feeds into his imagination outside, so if he walks over a crack and his foot’s over the line, he’ll think ‘No Ball’, as he’s walking down the street. Does Oscar find that racing infiltrates everyday life?

“Not consciously. But if I was walking somewhere and I had to go around the corners of buildings or something, if you looked at where I walked it would probably be the racing line.”

Many a cricket fan will share Oscar’s memories about junior cricket and those all-important bragging rights for being a team’s demon bowler.

Oscar: “At one point, when I was 10 or 11, one of my things was I always had to have the longest run-up in the team, for no reason whatsoever apart from being able to say my run-up’s the longest. Which normally meant by the time I got to the crease I was already tired.”

Did Jimmy also start with a really long run-up?

Jimmy: “No, I was the opposite. I wanted the shortest run-up. I tried to bowl as fast as I could off a short run-up… The shorter the better for me.”

As it turns out, it took meeting an Aussie cricket legend for the young Oscar to realise he might have been overdoing things.

Oscar: “I went to a cricket camp when I was a kid, and Dennis Lillee was there. That was very cool. And one of the questions he got was, ‘How long’s your run-up?” And it was the point that I realised that my run-up was about ten paces longer than Dennis Lillee’s that I probably went, ‘Ok, I can probably shorten this quite a bit.’ So that gave me a bit of perspective on my bowling.”

Tailenders can reveal from personal experience that Oscar Piastri is not just an incredible driver; he’s also a handy cricketer with bat and ball. You’d need to be to face Jimmy, and Oscar is frank about what it’s like facing England’s record-breaking bowler from 22 yards.

Oscar: “Scary. Especially - I know the ball was soft but - just the psychology of not having any pads or a box, it was quite intimidating.”

Even so, Oscar played some textbook shots. Not that Jimmy remembers any of that:

Jimmy: “I might have blanked that out already… Honestly, I was getting flashbacks to the Ashes last summer. I couldn’t get anyone out, and the same thing was happening. Smashing me through the covers.”

Formula One history is laced with some of sport’s most thrilling scenes, characters and rivalries. But for fans of the movie Rush, the reality of driving those cars was far from glamorous, as Oscar knows after trying out James Hunt’s 1976 McLaren.

“I drove the car and I am so happy I was born when I was, because that car scared the crap out of me. Back then the rules were quite different, so you can see how far forwards the cockpit is, so your legs actually go in front of the front wheels. So if you crash, your legs were basically the crash structure.”

Hear more stories from Oscar Piastri in the new Tailenders special, available now on 大象传媒 Sounds.