Oscar Piastri’s grandpa travels from Shepparton to the Spa-Francorchamps Formula 1 circuit in Belgium to watch champ race
Oscar Piastri overtook motorsport greats Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones’ shared record for wins by an Aussie in an F1 season by winning the Belgian Grand Prix. He dedicated the triumph to his Shepparton grandpa.
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It’s a long way from Shepparton to the Spa-Francorchamps Formula 1 circuit in Belgium.
But it was certainly worth the trip for Hugh MacFayden, given that his grandson is Melbourne F1 superstar Oscar Piastri.
Piastri, 24, overtook Aussie motorsport greats Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones’ shared record for wins by an Australian in an F1 season by winning the rain-soaked Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday morning. And he was quick to dedicate his sixth win from 13 races to his grandad, who had just watched him race live at an overseas F1 event for the first time.
After spraying champagne from the winner’s podium, Piastri duly scrawled a special message to MacFayden on the magnum of Moet.
“Dear grandad, I guess you need to come to races more often too!” it read.
In what is becoming something of a family tradition, Piastri also signed a bottle of French bubbles for his sister Edie when she travelled to Barcelona to watch his Spanish Grand Prix triumph last month.
“It’s the first race outside of Australia that he’s come to,” Piastri said of Shepparton-based MacFayden.
“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.”
Piastri also shared a warm embrace with mum Nicole after the win and said his maternal grandad “seemed like the person to dedicate it to – it’s a nice thing to do”.
Piastri’s win took the Brighton boy 16 points clear in the driver’s championship. Later, he took to Instagram to reinforce the message with his 4.3m followers.
“Hope granddad comes to more races,” Piastri said, below a photo of him on the winner’s dais, smiling broadly.
Originally published as Oscar Piastri’s grandpa travels from Shepparton to the Spa-Francorchamps Formula 1 circuit in Belgium to watch champ race
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