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While Formula One drivers are earning millions of dollars and drive luxury supercars, Melbourne-born McLaren driver Oscar Piastri still has a soft spot for a humble and iconic Australian drink that’s a staple in lunchboxes and households across the country.
Speaking at a presentation ahead of this year's Melbourne Grand Prix, Piastri declared his love for Big M, a flavoured milk company that originated in Victoria in 1977.
“My [favourite] Big M flavour is chocolate and the original [version], not whatever the experiment they tried was,” the 23-year-old F1 driver said. He is, of course, referring to the revised version of the flavoured milk panned by customers when the company introduced it in 2014.
Additionally, Piastri shared his love of another pub classic, the parmigiana (parma if you’re in Victoria and parmi if you’re in NSW).
The combination of a chicken cutlet, ham, cheese and tomato sauce is a mainstay in Australian pubs, but the McLaren driver has no preference when asked where people can find the best parma in Melbourne.
“I don’t have one [specific] place to get one, [there’s a] local one close to my mum’s that was pretty good in the summer. But I normally try and get one wherever I can fit it in, wherever I [can find] one,” Piastri shared.
“There’s a few good ones around and to be honest it’s pretty hard to get a parma that wrong,” he added.
But controversially, despite being Melbourne born and bred, Piastri admitted he doesn’t drink coffee.
When asked if he’s got a go-to coffee spot as most locals do, Piastri sighed before he eventually explained, “I don’t drink coffee, so I don’t [have a recommendation]. It’s very disappointing for literally every single person that’s asked me where to get coffee in Melbourne, which is pretty much a hundred people in the MTC (McLaren Technology Centre) this week.
“I don’t have good recommendations, I normally just leave that to someone else to find that for me and I pass it onto [and say] it’s my information,” he added.
More recently, the Melburnian debuted his collaboration with another popular Australian-burger franchise Grill'd. The $19 burger showcases a cosmetic nod to the young driver, most notably the black charcoal buns and a hint of orange found in the shaved carrot.
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
