Oscar Piastri is a household name, but before his freakish talent catapulted him to international stardom on the Formula One circuit, he spent a lot of time in the Goulburn Valley, indulging in his grandma’s rumballs — the same recipe the entire McLaren race team has come to love.
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Oscar’s parents, Chris and Nicole, were born here. All four of his grandparents still live here.
One of just 20 current Formula One drivers in the world for the past two-and-a-half years, the 24-year-old young gun has won seven grands prix since 2024.
His grandfather Hugh MacFadyen says — proudly — that before he dominated the F1 track, Oscar was already a champion.
He raced radio-controlled cars from the age of eight, becoming Australian champion at nine, before switching to go-karting at the same age.
“Remote control cars are just like a proper race car, like a Falcon or a Mustang or something, and all the suspension, everything’s exactly the same, the adjustments, everything,” Hugh explained.
He said Oscar could pick up the smallest inconsistencies in the way his car drove just by watching it move on the track from atop a container where he was controlling it with a remote.
Someone suggested to Oscar’s dad, Chris, who is the co-owner of thriving automotive hardware and software development company HP Tuners, that he take Oscar out to the Oakleigh go-kart track to give him a squirt.
When he did, Melbourne Kart Centre owner and multi-championship winner James Sera was there and told Chris “the kid’s got something special”.
“So the next weekend, they had their own go-kart and that’s how it sort of started,” Hugh said.
He said Oscar showed as much mechanical prowess with the go-kart as he had with the radio-controlled vehicles.
“He could tell, you know, we’ve got to change another tooth on the sprocket, or we’ve got to put in a softer axle,” Hugh said.
“He raced all over here (Australia) and then overseas.”
Hugh was involved with his grandson’s busy go-kart racing schedule, recalling fondly the times he flew to meets in Tasmania, NSW and South Australia.
“We towed the trailer up to Airlie Beach for him to race up there,” Hugh said.
Oscar was enrolled at private Melbourne school Haileybury.
“He used to disappear (from school) on a Friday to fly to England to race and then fly home and come back on a Tuesday,” Hugh said.
“He never told the kids (at school) that he goes to England to race go-karts.”
The family soon bought a unit in England for its stays, but the constant travel became too much, so Oscar ended up transferring to Haileybury’s England campus when he was 14.
“He had to get from there to Heathrow to fly home — all that at 14 — that’s why he’s pretty level-headed,” Hugh said.
Not only did Oscar excel on the track, but he was also a straight-A student.
Hugh suspects he was incentivised by his parents’ condition that he had to pass or he would not be allowed to race.
After go-karts came Formula 4 driving, followed by Formula Renault, then Formula 3, where he became world champion in his first year, and topping that off by winning Formula 2 later.
“Once you win that, you’ve got to move up to Formula 1 or some other form of racing, you can’t stay in Formula 2,” Hugh said.
So, F1 it was.
You have to be more than just an elite driver to break into the racing discipline, however.
Hugh recalls it costing Oscar’s parents around $5 million to $6 million to get him started, but has heard of some racers investing up to $30 million to get their shot.
Despite his father’s business growing larger and bringing in the big bucks, Hugh says Oscar remained as modest and humble as that school kid who never bragged to his classmates.
Most of the drivers from the world’s 10 Formula One teams recently attended the premiere of the F1 movie, starring Brad Pitt.
Hugh said Oscar’s teammate, British driver Lando Norris, wore a pair of $15,000 jeans to the event.
“I said to Robyn, well, Oscar won’t be in a $15,000 pair of jeans, I can guarantee,” he laughed.
“He’s been with Lily (Zneimer, his girlfriend, whom he met at school in England) for five years.
“He doesn’t sort of be out there, you know, he just does his own thing, and doesn’t look for the limelight.
“(New Zealand’s) Liam Lawson has just come in this year, and he’s wearing all the fancy gear, and Oscar’s not like that, he’s still really down to earth.”
Of course, he still needs something to spend his prize money on, so buying a car — a Ferrari no less — to navigate the streets of Monaco, where he now lives on the French Riviera, made sense.
With weekly rent over $5000 for his two-bedroom apartment on the Mediterranean coast, it’s a high-priced lifestyle anyway.
Just after The News spoke to Hugh — a motoring enthusiast, MOVE volunteer and long-time member of the GV Motor Vehicle Driver’s Club — he left for Goodwood Festival of Speed with daughter Nicole and her partner to visit and support Oscar.
Robyn stayed behind to mind the family’s pets.
Her absence will be felt, not least by the McLaren race team, who will miss out on her homemade lamingtons and rumballs this time around.
Hugh said Oscar had always liked Grandma’s rumballs, so she once made them and some lamingtons for him when he was racing at Melbourne’s Grand Prix.
“Oscar took them to the team and, of course, they got into them and then there was an order put in for the following year,” Hugh said.
“This year she made 40 lamingtons and I don’t know how many rumballs, because Kym Illman, the Formula One photographer and ... (the) governor of Victoria (Professor Margaret Gardner) wanted some, and then the team ended up with a heap.
“So it’s an ongoing thing because they’re on the big screen and all down at the Grand Prix, you know, Grandma’s rumballs.”
Kind gestures are a tradition in the family, with Oscar’s mum, Nicole, also delivering Aussie hospitality to the cultural melting pot of international F1 racing.
She’s been known to make hampers for Oscar’s teammates with Tim Tams, Vegemite and other “Australian stuff” inside.
“She brought the other drivers a football each, and stuff like that,” Hugh said.
Hugh will visit England’s McLaren factory on his trip, before spending a few days in Monaco with Oscar.
With 24 races in a season, it’s a demanding schedule, so while Oscar likes to return to Australia, he doesn’t get much opportunity unless it’s for Christmas or on the racing circuit in Melbourne.
“That’s his job now,” Hugh said of his grandson, whose foreseeable future remains in racing F1s.
At 24, he’s one of the discipline’s younger stars, surrounded by the likes of 40-year-old F1 multi-record holder Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), 37-year-old Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber) and 43-year-old Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).
Hugh, undeniably proud of Oscar, is looking forward to following his No. 81 grandson’s journey, with continued excitement and only minimal nerves about the dangers of the high-speed motorsport.
“A lot of people ask if I’m frightened, but, you know, he’s doing 300k(m) an hour and I’d rather him be doing that than playing football,” Hugh said.
“Most of the footballers can’t walk when they’re 50. The only thing that worries me is a fire, but otherwise, the cars are really safe; they can turn them upside down and not get hurt.”
To view some of Oscar Piastri’s racing memorabilia from his mum’s private collection, visit MOVE at Emerald Bank.
Senior journalist