Oscar Piastri may not have claimed nationality in Japan yet as he did in China. Instead, he took another route to connect with the local fans, making a social media post in Japanese ahead of this weekend’s race at Suzuka.
Having sported a beautiful green and gold helmet for the Australian GP weekend—which was his home race—Piastri revealed another special helmet for the Japanese GP. However, fans poked fun at Piastri’s poor skills in using social media after watching his Japanese post on Instagram.
In the video, the Australian revealed his special blue and white-colored helmet for the upcoming Grand Prix weekend in Suzuka. “Hello everyone! This is my special helmet for the Japanese GP,” he spoke, and wrote in Japanese as the caption. And, although his post was about the helmet, he failed to showcase it entirely.
Perhaps he was so caught up trying to polish his Japanese language skills that he forgot the true intent of his post. Fans, of course, had a field day, while demanding that they wanted to see the helmet.
“He drives like a champion but posts like a boomer, show us the helmet, Oscar,” one fan @jack.marsta wrote in the comments. Meanwhile, several other fans claimed that this was Piastri’s way of claiming the Japanese GP as yet another home race.
“Did u know Oscar is 1/64th Japanese?” Fox Sports Australia’s Niko Pajarillo hilariously wrote. Another user commented, “third home race in a row”.
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After Piastri’s season-opening home race weekend in Australia, the F1 circus raced in China—a race he claims is his 1/16th home race since his great-great-grandfather was Chinese. Well, Piastri did put effort into digging up his ancestral history to please the Chinese fans.
Last year, the 23-year-old even attempted to trace any Monegasque ethnic roots in his family history. Apparently, this cascaded into a running gag that Charles Leclerc had adopted Piastri into his family to help him claim Monaco as his home race, too.
With his recent helmet reveal for Suzuka, he was trying to win over Japan, which prompted fans to say he should improve his social media posting skills first.
One user suggested he could take advice from his girlfriend, Lily Zneimer, who is popular on TikTok, to sharpen his posts. “Hey, so can Lily help you film or teach you some tips and tricks?” they wrote.
It was, however, an honest attempt. Besides, everyone will get a good look at his special helmet once the on-track action gets underway at Suzuka.
