Oscar Piastri challenges home GP curse: no Australian has ever finished on the podium in Melbourne or Adelaide. F1 Australia, the Oscar Piastri question mark.

F1 Australia, the Oscar Piastri question mark
Most experts expect Lando Norris to be the winner of the first GP of the year. After all, the Briton is the reigning vice-world champion, and McLaren emerged from testing as the best car, at least in race pace.

Oscar Piastri, Norris’s teammate, does not receive the same level of attention. Partly because he doesn’t seek it due to his reserved nature, and partly because the end of 2024 and the three days of testing in Bahrain effectively overshadowed the Australian. However, he is used to working quietly and then suddenly surprising everyone, Norris included.

With all due respect to Jack Doohan, it is Oscar Piastri who has the biggest opportunity in Melbourne to break a long-standing curse. The Australian Grand Prix has been on the F1 calendar since 1985 (with the first 11 editions of the GP held in Adelaide), yet no home driver has ever managed to finish on the podium. In 38 Grands Prix, Alan Jones, David Brabham, Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo, and Oscar Piastri himself have all tried. The McLaren driver holds the best result for an Australian at the home GP—a fourth-place finish (2024), shared with Daniel Ricciardo (2016 and 2018) and Webber (2012). Daniel Ricciardo is the only one who actually finished in the top three on track: in 2014, he crossed the line second in his Red Bull and stood on the podium, only to be disqualified later for excessive fuel consumption.

Ironically, aside from Daniel Ricciardo’s case, the only time an Australian flag has appeared on the podium of an F1 race was for a driver who didn’t even finish in the top three. This happened with Mark Webber, who was invited to celebrate on the top step after finishing fifth in the 2002 Australian Grand Prix, his debut race in F1 with Minardi.