After what felt like an eternity of build-up, F1 finally got down to business in 2025 with the Australian GP qualifying on Saturday. While people were keen to find out the pecking order, most of the focus around Albert Park was on one man — Oscar Piastri!
Racing in his third season, the Melbourne-born driver received a bumper reception of applause and cheer as he ventured on to the track to qualify for his home Grand Prix on Sunday. The hype around Piastri was amplified by the fact that McLaren had announced a multi-year contract extension for the Aussie just before the weekend kicked off.
Many were hoping that Piastri would put his McLaren MCL39 in P1 to secure his maiden pole position. While he just fell short of that by less than a tenth of a second, the roar for his final lap in Q3 was majestic.
However, besides Oscar, another member of the Piastri family was getting fans’ attention in the paddock. It was the 23-year-old’s sister, Hattie Piastri. Apparently, many fans at the track clicked pictures with Hattie and even posted the same on their Instagram.
“Just casually met my favorite Piastri today,” a female fan dressed in a McLaren t-shirt wrote on her story with a selfie alongside Hattie. Another fan cheekily wrote, “@oscarpiastri? I’ll raise you one better @hattiepiastri”. The #81 driver’s sister reposted all of these stories on her Instagram.
Oscar Piastri’s sister Hattie garners a lot of spotlight from fans at the Australian GP pic.twitter.com/RMNmeph2S4
— Motorsport Fan (@F1IndyWEC) March 15, 2025
Hattie certainly seems to be building a decent fanbase in Melbourne, not just because of her brother’s exploits on track, but also due to her humorous presence on social media.
Just ahead of the Australian GP weekend, she expressed how annoyed she was with Oscar’s face being plastered everywhere across the city, be it on trams and huge billboard displays. In fact, she felt awkward to hear his voice in a promotional announcement for the race that has been airing in public transport across Melbourne.
However, it was all for capitalizing on the fact that a hometown youngster is driving for the champion team in F1 and could even break the jinx for Aussie drivers at their home race by winning the Grand Prix.
Piastri a top contender to win in Melbourne
With McLaren having the fastest mechanical package of the current grid, both Lando Norris and Piastri are in the fight for the Australian GP win. During qualifying as well, the duo showcased their pace by locking out the front row after putting stellar laps in the dying embers of Q3.
While Norris beat Piastri to take pole, the gap was marginal at just over eight-hundredths of a second! On Sunday, the Aussie has an excellent chance to take the race lead, given Norris doesn’t have the best record of race starts from pole.
However, the cars behind the McLaren would also be in the fight, given how close the lap times were across qualifying. Max Verstappen, who qualified P3 at the end, was setting purple sectors on every occasion he was out on track. Until the end, he threatened to take pole or at least put his RB21 on the front row to split the McLarens.
It’s #AusGP pole position for Lando Norris
Here’s the final classification after Q3 #F1 pic.twitter.com/XEft8KctfC
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 15, 2025
Given there is a high possibility of rain on Sunday, the field will get closer and McLaren’s advantage may not suffice to keep the likes of Verstappen and George Russell at bay.
Verstappen, in particular, would be a massive threat from third on the grid to win the race if it rains. This is where Piastri and Norris will have to show their wet weather ability and harness McLaren’s sublime pace to come out on top.
Piastri would certainly back himself to come good on home turf. He knows that no Australian driver has ever won the Australian Grand Prix or even got a podium since it became an F1 world championship event in 1985. So, he would be keen to break that trend.
