Long Before F1 Money, Oscar Piastri Was Stuck Between a $16.5k Fine or Starving

Oscar Piastri signed a blockbuster contract extension with McLaren last year and will race for the team until the end of 2026. As per his revised contract, his base salary has now increased to $6 million a year. While Piastri is earning a decent amount of money today, there was a time when he had a difficult decision to make. Either he could have paid a $16,500 fine to get food or he had to go starving.

Piastri tweeted about the same back in 2020 when he was still in F3. His post read, “So, the hotel is closed for lunch, no catering at the track, €15,000 [$16,500] fine if I am caught outside of the hotel or track. Guess I’m eating my left arm for lunch…”.

So, hotel is closed for lunch, no catering at the track, €15000 fine if I am caught outside of the hotel or track. Guess I’m eating my left arm for lunch…

— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) July 15, 2020

Although Piastri is an F1 race winner now, he wasn’t as well known back in the day. Regardless, fans came to his rescue. The Aussie confirmed he received food from his fans and thanked them for their help. Piastri cheekily also suggested that he’s considering tweeting about food more often, given the response of the fans. 

Piastri confirmed back then that fans didn’t have to worry about him potentially starving the next day as the track organizers will be providing the lunch. Will Buxton then entered the comment section and asked the driver to “Download “Wolt” – it’s basically Deliveroo for Hungary”. The Aussie replied, “Will give it a go.”

Meanwhile, someone also suggested Piastri to fast for the time being. In reply, Piastri said, “Wasn’t planning on it at this point of the season”. However, considering the lucrative contract Piastri has signed with McLaren recently, it seems unlikely that he will ever go starving.