It was a big weekend for Australian single seater drivers with Will Power becoming the first Australian winner of the Indianpolis 500, Daniel Ricciardo winning the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix and little known Formula Renault Eurocup driver Alex Peroni (pictured) taking the most important win of his motor racing career also at Monaco.
Power became the first Australian winner of the Indianapolis 500 with a superb drive to victory lane in the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. (Kiwi Scott Dixon came home third behind pole-sitter Ed Carpenter).
You have to give credit to Power as he has the talent but arguably not the luck when needed. After finishing runner-up in the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2010, 2011 and 2012 he finally won in 2014. The 37 year old has won 34 IndyCar races and started from pole over 50 times. Now he is a Indy 500 winner.
Ricciardo’s win at the Monaco Grand Prix was his second for the 2018 F1 season and his seventh in a F1 career which started with his debut at the 2011 British F1 Grand Pix with Hispania Racing. At that stage he was contracted to HRT by Red Bull, replacing Narain Karthikeyan. He was then contracted to Toro Rosso for 2012-13 where he gained his first F1 points at his home Grand Prix in Australia in 2012.
After Mark Webber announced his retirement from Formula One, Ricciardo was confirmed as his replacement at Red Bull Racing for 2014, finishing that season third overall and taking three F1 wins (Canada, Hungary and Belgium).
Ironically in 2009 he replaced Brendon Hartley as Red Bull Racing’s test and reserve driver, although both shared these duties for both Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso until Hartley was removed from the Red Bull Junior team!
From Hobart, Alex Peroni first pursued a kartsport career before moving to single seaters. In 2016 competed in a Formula Renault winning the French VdeV series at just 16 years of age and becoming the youngest Australian to win a single seater championship in Europe!
In 2017, in his debut year in the Formula Renault Eurocup he finished tenth overall, winning his first Eurocup race at Pau in the south of France.
Peroni followed up his Monaco Formula Renault Eurocup win on Saturday with a controlled drive to second place in Sunday’s race. His win at Monaco moves him up to eighth overall in the 2018 championship.
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