As Oscar Piastri desperately works to rebound from his recent Formula One woes, an Australian restaurant chain is doing its part to keep his title hopes alive.
After offering free burgers for every time the Australian made the podium, Grill’d burger chain has apologised for putting a “curse” on the McLaren driver.
Piastri has not finished in the top three since the promotion was relaunched five races ago, with his teammate Lando Norris taking the championship lead off him.
Grill’d’s Piastri 81 Burger was first put on the menu before the Australian Grand Prix in March, with Piastri’s endorsement, after he was on the podium in Italy and was leading the championship.
But since then the 24-year-old driver has crashed, collided and picked up penalty points.
The chain then changed the offer to reward fans for when he finished a race – and Piastri subsequently crashed out of the São Paulo sprint.
“Please stop this promotion and give us some hope for the last three races,” said one fan on the chain’s Facebook page this week.
Grill’d apologised on social media to “everyone who believes in the ‘curse’”. “We never meant to create a burger so delicious it could change the course of F1 history,” it said.
Burger curses are not on the mind of Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber, who says his charge will have to find “deep motivations” and “character” to provide a rousing end to his chastening 2025 season.
But even if this year’s drivers’ crown may now be beyond Piastri, as Norris is 24 points clear with just three grand prix remaining, Webber was also quick to remind everyone of the near “unprecedented” achievements of the man who’s still a relative three-season novice.
‘I was an old dog’: Mark Webber says Oscar Piastri has achieved a huge amount for such a young driver. Photograph: Héctor Vivas/Getty Images
After watching him finish fifth in the São Paulo Grand Prix while Norris won – the fifth race in a row in which Piastri had missed the podium – Webber, told Channel 4: “Well, get him turned around.
“I don’t think he’s low on motivation, put it that way,” he said. “He’s had a tough run, but this is about character, about finding those deep motivations that you need at this point to come back.”
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Webber, a nine-time grand prix winner who had a near-miss for the title himself in 2010 when leading with three races to go before eventually finishing third behind champion Sebastian Vettel, knows all about the pressures of a title run-in.
Whatever the result of the 2025 campaign, Webber felt it should still be taken into account just what an achievement it has been for Piastri to win seven grands prix in only his third season of F1.
“It’s obviously an incredible journey so early in his career to fight for a world title. Year three is pretty unprecedented – I think there was Lewis [Hamilton] but there haven’t been many people that have done this so early in his career,” Webber said.
“When I went for my championship, I was an old dog. I was really old at the end of my career. He’s early in his career, so there’s different nuances there.
“To see him so young, year three, fighting for a world title quite quickly, it’s pretty surreal and bizarre. A lot of drivers don’t fight for a title once in their career, so you’ve got to try and find the positives.”
