If McLaren driver Oscar Piastri having a 98-million-year-old wasp species named after him sounds like an elaborate inside joke, then that’s pretty much how it started.
Oxford research fellow Corentin Jouault and his colleagues Prof. Di-Ying Huang and Prof. Celso O. Azevedo recently conducted research on a 98-year-old wasp fossil from the Cretaceous Period, encountered in Myanmar amber.
They eventually determined the wasp belongs to a new, second species of the Lancepyrinae genus Gwesped. Having formally described it in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, Palaeoworld, Jouault had the honour of naming the new species. And he settled on Gwesped piastrii, named after the McLaren star.
Jouault, 27 from France, is unsurprisingly a lifelong F1 fan, but that’s not the only reason why he named the wasp after the Australian.
“I have been more or less immersed in Formula 1 since childhood,” Jouault told Motorsport.com. “My grandfather was a long-time F1 aficionado. I am probably a little less dedicated, because my research often has me travelling around the world, sometimes isolated in the middle of the tropical rainforest.
“But whenever possible I try to have the grand prix on in the background while working or watch the races during the weekend. At the very least, I always keep an eye on the results.
“When I arrived at Oxford, I met a group of enthusiastic F1 fans among my colleagues. We frequently discussed the season, debated race results over a pint and last year we found ourselves debating which driver deserved the title.
“To settle the discussion, I jokingly declared that I would name a species after Oscar Piastri because I have been cheering for him since his rookie season. I admire both his driving and his calm, professional attitude.”
Scientist Corentin Jouault (27) pledged to name his next discovery after Oscar Piastri as the McLaren driver contested the 2025 world championship.
Photo by: Jayce Illman / Getty Images
You don’t exactly get to discover a new species every day, so when Jouault made his pledge, it was more of a joke than something he thought would ever actually happen.
“Discovering a completely new species is not an everyday occurrence, so I had no idea whether I would actually get the opportunity,” Jouault explained. “The only thing I knew was that it would probably be a wasp, since that is the group I specialise in. There was also a nice connection with the PiastriHive theme in Oscar’s fan community, with bees being a specialised type of wasp.”
A few months later Jouault headed to China for a research stay at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, home to one of the world’s most impressive collections of fossil insects preserved in amber. There, he and his colleague Huang came across a particularly unusual fossil wasp trapped in 98-million-year-old amber from Myanmar.
“From the beginning, we suspected that it represented something entirely new,” he said. “We carried out a detailed taxonomic study, which involved cutting and polishing the amber to reveal key anatomical features and photographing structures used to distinguish fossil wasp species. The more we studied it, the clearer it became that this specimen belonged to a completely extinct lineage dating back to the age of dinosaurs.
“After comparing it with all known relatives, we identified a unique combination of characteristics that clearly separated it from every other known species. That was the moment when I realised: ‘This is it. I’ve found my Piastri species.’
“The timing felt perfect, as the project was progressing alongside Oscar’s remarkable 2025 season.”
Since we’re all here to learn something and not just for our entertainment, Jouault is keen to share the reasoning behind the academic nomenclature.
“The fossil is named piastrii with two “i”s. This is not a spelling mistake but a requirement of zoological nomenclature,” he explained. “When a species is named after a man, the suffix ‘-i’ is added to the surname. Since Piastri already ends with an “i”, the result becomes piastrii.”
In an explanation which resembles a typical FIA document detailing a team’s aerodynamic upgrades, Jouault’s paper reads: “This species can be readily distinguished from the previously known Gwesped species by its higher number of flagellomeres and distinctive forewing venation.”
The Gwesped piastrii species
Photo by: Corentin Jouault
In another batch of amber specimens, Jouault and Huang discovered a second unusual wasp belonging to the same family but representing a different lineage. “For that specimen, I sought the help of Celso Azevedo, the world’s leading expert on this group of wasps,” he added. “Celso played a crucial role in determining its relationships and confirming that it belonged to a modern genus, although it represented an extinct species.”
The end result is a peer-reviewed scientific paper, which was accepted and eventually published in the June issue of Palaeoworld, quickly causing amusement in the F1 community.
But Jouault’s fandom of Piastri is not the only link to his discovery, as the piece of orange amber, which measures 10 x 8 x 2 mm, also reminded him of McLaren’s papaya colour.
“The amber pieces themselves display a beautiful orange colour that reminded us of McLaren’s distinctive papaya livery,” he said. “The reference to McLaren was also a nod to Celso’s Brazilian background. McLaren and Brazil share a special place in Formula 1 history, largely thanks to the legendary Ayrton Senna, whose legacy remains enormously important to many fans around the world.”
Operating in a niche field, Jouault was understandably taken aback by the huge amount of publicity and the crossover between his profession and his passion for F1. Currently visiting colleagues at the Okinama Institute of Science and Technology in Japan, the story emerged overnight and he woke up to a stream of messages as he switched on his phone.
One message included a social media clip by McLaren in which a bemused Piastri responded to his social team’s stingingly humorous wasp-based puns.
“To be honest, I was not expecting this level of attention from the F1 community,” he said. “My phone was buzzing continuously with notifications, likes, retweets, messages from all directions, and friends sending me articles and screenshots saying that the species dedication had been discovered.
“I have to admit that it was a wonderful way to start the day, especially seeing the reaction from the McLaren team and Oscar himself.”
But if he ever discovers another new wasp species, Jouault isn’t sure if he’ll name it after another F1 star.
“I don’t think that will happen anytime soon,” he laughed. “I have probably received enough attention from the F1 community. More seriously, I think that dedicating a species to a person should remain something exceptional rather than routine.
“That said, if I were ever to do it again for another F1 driver, I might be tempted to honour someone from an earlier generation, perhaps a fellow Frenchman such as Alain Prost, who remains one of the great figures in the sport’s history.”
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