Oscar Piastri's heartfelt reason he wrote grandad's name on Belgian GP winner's champagne

Daily Mirror

6 days ago

It was a touching moment after Oscar Piastri beat McLaren F1 team-mate and title rival Lando Norris to win the Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit Spa-Francorchamps
It was an easy moment to miss in the minutes after the conclusion of the Belgian Grand Prix. We had just seen Oscar Piastri get the better of Lando Norris on the first racing lap of a rain-affected affair, delayed by well over an hour, and convert it into his sixth victory of 2025.
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When he returned to parc ferme in his McLaren, the scenes were nothing out of the ordinary. Celebration with mechanics, a handshake with Norris and a quick hop onto the FIA weighing scales to make sure everything was above board.
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But there was one eye-catching moment, when he stopped at a bottle of champagne from new Formula 1 sponsors Moët & Chandon to sign it. Instead of just daubing his usual signature, Piastri also wrote a message dedicating his win to his grandfather.
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It read: "To grandad, I guess you need to come to races more often too!" As the message alluded to, Piastri's grandfather was present at Circuit Spa-Francorchamps and got to witness the Aussie extend his championship lead in person.
""It's the first race outside of Australia that he's come to," Piastri explained in the post-race press conference, after he had collected his trophy and celebrated on the podium. "One of my sisters, in Spain, that was her first race outside of Australia, and that was a good weekend.
"Now my grandfather the same, so maybe I need to get my family members one by one for the rest of the races. I didn't know. It seemed like the best person to dedicate it to. It's a nice thing to do."
Piastri also referenced what he had written on the champagne bottle with a post on social media, sharing some of his highlights from the Belgian GP weekend. "Hoping grandad comes to more races," he wrote in the carousel post on Instagram.
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Piastri had been on pole a day earlier for the Sprint race, but lost out to Max Verstappen. The Dutchman took advantage of the long flat-out section after the first corner which gave him a slipstream and the opportunity to fly past the McLaren, and stay there.
Having experienced that a day earlier, he knew his best chance in the main Grand Prix was to do the same thing to Norris. And that's exactly what he managed, explaining: "I knew it was going to help me pretty significantly if I did it.
"I had a good run out of turn one and then tried to be as brave as I could through Eau Rouge and was able to stay pretty close. After that, the slipstream did the rest for me. I knew that was going to be pretty important for trying to win the race today."