Oscar Piastri celebrates his first win in F1 in Hungary last year. Image: XPB Images
The 24-year-old, who returns to the scene of that career-defining win this weekend as the world championship leader, said the message came as a shock in the aftermath of his first grand prix triumph.
“That was a bit unexpected because I had not really spoken or met Seb before that,” Piastri said in a video feature on the McLaren YouTube channel. “[It was] kind of sharing his experience of what his first win felt like.
“There wasn’t anyone massively unexpected but from a lot of other drivers, which was really nice.”
Piastri became the fifth Australian to win a world championship Formula 1 race at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, holding off team-mate Lando Norris in a tense McLaren one-two.
A lightning start saw him seize the lead at Turn 1, and while strategy briefly dropped him behind Norris, team orders ultimately handed Piastri the position back with five laps to go — a move that frustrated Norris but sealed the win for the Melbourne driver.
Reflecting on the emotional aftermath, Piastri admitted the feeling was as much about relief as it was joy.
“Afterwards there was a sense of pride, but also a sense of relief,” he said. “Obviously a lot of hard work and sacrifice in some ways to get to that point, so that was really really special.”
He added that the reality of the achievement didn’t properly sink in until the following morning.
“I think the morning after the first time I stood on top of an F1 podium was a pretty cool moment where I woke up and could go ‘I’m an F1 winner now’,” Piastri said.
“Immediately after the race it feels kind of surreal, then you do the interviews and have the articles written or whatever and the social posts and stuff and it all kind of hits as well.
“So it kind of sunk in a bit more as time went on.”
The win was also a proud moment for Australian fans, both trackside and back home, with Piastri noting the strong support he felt throughout the weekend and the national pride that came with the result.
“It’s always nice hearing the Australian anthem and I feel like there’s at least a few Aussies pretty much everywhere we go which is always nice,” he said.
“I remember very clearly in Budapest that there was a lot of Aussie flags, especially under the podium, which was really special.
“I think the race would have finished at about 1am or 2am in Australia, so the die-hard fans were awake. My family was definitely awake!
“But for the general public, I think they woke up to that news. So it was kind of a bit of a wave when I won immediately after the race, but then almost kind of a second wave when everyone woke up and saw the results.
“That was nice that I got to relive it twice a little bit.”
While the original trophy remains with McLaren, Piastri said he keeps a replica at his home, as well as some more personal mementos from the weekend.
“For those that remember, I got given a five euro note on, I think, on the Thursday or the Friday of the weekend, which was quite a cool moment,” he explained. “I have some other things, been gifted a few paintings and other cool things.
“I never used that helmet again. So I have the helmet from that race weekend as it finished the race, the replica trophy and the five euro note.”
Piastri also admitted that his celebration, by F1 standards, was relatively quiet.
“I didn’t have a very exciting celebration,” he said. “I was flying back with a few other drivers, actually, Lando, Alex Albon, Jack Doohan, a few others, and our flight got delayed by about three hours.
“So we were sat in an airport for a long time, then had to fly into a different airport, so it was a three-hour drive back home. So I got home at 5am.
“If you just take the headlines and I got back home at 5am after my first win, it sounds like a great time, but it wasn’t particularly exciting, but that’s okay with me.
“I did play Monopoly… so that was exciting!”
Beyond the emotion of ticking off a lifelong goal, Piastri said what stuck with him most was the personal improvement.
“I think probably the biggest thing from that weekend was firstly, ticking off a dream of mine and a goal of trying to win a Formula 1 race, but also, I guess away from that, just that it was a really good weekend,” he said.
“Especially when I compare it back to Hungary in 2023. I was also very proud of the fact that the improvement that I’d made from year to year.
“So that’s kind of one of the big things I took from that weekend, and just ticking off a dream that I’d had since a kid.”
Piastri returns to Hungary this weekend having added a further seven wins to his tally — six of them coming this season alone — and enters the race as the world championship leader, 16 points clear of team-mate Norris.
He said he was looking forward to the challenge of trying to win again.
“It’s going to be cool going back to the scene of my first F1 win,” Piastri said. “But I’m sure once I’m there, I’m going to be very much focused on how I can try and win again, as you try and do every weekend.
“Once the on track action starts, it’s going to be about how we can try and repeat that result.”
2025 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix – Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more