{"id":78289,"date":"2025-08-18T20:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78289\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:51:08","slug":"oscar-piastri-follows-in-daniel-ricciardo-footsteps-with-surreal-prestigious-honour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78289\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri follows in Daniel Ricciardo footsteps with &#8216;surreal&#8217; prestigious honour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oscar Piastri is to have a grandstand named after him at the Australian Grand Prix in 2026, where he may be kicking off his F1 drivers&#8217; championship defence.<\/p>\n<p>The driver from Melbourne will follow in the footsteps of some of the country&#8217;s most successful and best-loved motorsport talent, including Jack Brabham, Alan Jones and Daniel Ricciardo.<\/p>\n<p>The grandstand will be situated on the main straight, opposite the pit lane and will hold the seats closest to the start line.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very excited by the news that I&#8217;ll have my own grandstand at next year&#8217;s Australian Grand Prix,&#8221; the McLaren driver shared.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It feels very surreal, and I never thought this would happen, but the support is incredible, and I can&#8217;t wait to see it all come together next March.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Seeing all the fans in my own grandstand directly opposite the McLaren garage is going to be an amazing experience, and I&#8217;m really looking forward to feeling the energy and the atmosphere.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thanks to everyone who has made this happen, and thanks in advance to everyone who wants to be part of it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Australian fans always turn out to support me, and this is just an extra reason why I can&#8217;t wait to race in Melbourne in 2026.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tCelebrating a local star<\/p>\n<p>Mark Webber, Piastri&#8217;s manager, also had a grandstand named after him during his career in F1, which ran between 2002 and 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s magnificent news for the event and for Oscar,&#8221; said the former Minardi, Jaguar, Williams and Red Bull driver.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a reflection of his results so far, incredibly early in his career, that he&#8217;s managed to have the amount of podiums and victories that he&#8217;s had.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Clearly he is very comfortable at the elite level, and making his presence felt, which is brilliant, and representing Australia in the way that the country likes to be represented.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it will all sink in when the event is underway and the people in the grandstand can be opposite Oscar&#8217;s pit box. It will be an added bonus for the fans and Oscar alike.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tickets for next year&#8217;s Australian Grand Prix, which will be between 5-8 March 2026, will go on sale 10 September 2025, with an American Express card member pre-sale the week before.<\/p>\n<p>A range of pricing options will be available &#8211; for both the event at large and the Piastri Grandstand &#8211; starting from $45 for adults.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Dimopolous, Australia&#8217;s minister for tourism, sport and major events, added: &#8220;The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix is a celebration of Melbourne&#8217;s best \u2013 our world-class hospitality, our food and drink, our unmatched passion for sport \u2013 so it&#8217;s fitting this grandstand recognises the achievements of one of our most successful local motorsport legends.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whether you want to be one of the first fans to experience the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix from the Piastri Grandstand, or are simply looking to lock in your annual Park Pass, get ready because these tickets will be hot.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri is to have a grandstand named after him at the Australian Grand Prix in 2026, where&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":["post-78289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motorsport","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}