“It’s Not a Joke”: Oscar Piastri ‘Seriously’ Reiterates His Chinese Ancestry Claim After His ‘Home Race’ Win

FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX 2025 SHANGHAI, CHINA- MARCH 22: Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren F1 Team looks on in the TV Pen during Sprint ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of CHINA at Shanghai International Circuit on March 22, 2025 in Shanghai, China

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has a penchant for calling different Grands Prix his home races. Last year, the Australian racing ace called the Chinese GP his home race because of a 1/16 connection to the country through his great, great grandfather.

Piastri has made similar claims about the Monaco and the Italian GP as well. Now for the first time in his F1 career, the McLaren driver has won a ‘home’ GP.

Piastri drove a brilliant race at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday to claim his third Grand Prix win. He commanded the race from pole position and comfortably beat his McLaren teammate Lando Norris to the chequered flag by almost 10 seconds.

When jokingly asked about his Chinese roots after the race, he said, “It’s not a joke, by the way. I have Chinese heritage somewhere.”

While the Australian racing ace does have some Chinese in him, it’s not that profound. Back in 2023, he had said, “It’s many generations ago and I definitely can’t speak Chinese and I’m not going to embarrass myself.”

Meanwhile, Piastri began labeling the Monaco GP as his home race after he claimed that the Leclerc family had adopted him. It was then that Piastri’s mother, Nicole, decided to ‘adopt’ RB driver Yuki Tsunoda.

Nicole Piastri told Tsunoda there was a vacancy in her family

Last year, after Piastri’s ‘open letter’ to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the Australian’s mother advertised for a vacancy for a son in the family. She asked RB driver Yuki Tsunoda if he wanted to be adopted by her at the Monaco GP.

“It appears there’s a vacancy for a son in my family, @yukitsunoda07,” she had written on X (formerly Twitter). 

F1 fans on social media went berserk and many congratulated her for her choice. One fan wrote, “We all want to adopt yuki,” whilst another said, “your first choice being yuki is sooo real.”

She even kept the facade up after practice at the 2024 Monaco GP. “Very proud of my boys @yukitsunoda07 and @OscarPiastri,” she had written after a P2 and P8 finish for Piastri and Tsunoda respectively.

Post Edited By: Vidit Dhawan
Chinese GP McLaren Oscar Piastri

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

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