Oscar Piastri tried the ‘Griddy’ having won the F1 Miami GP after promising NFL star Justin Jefferson, whose celebration trademark is the dance.
McLaren’s Piastri had to fight off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to take the win in F1 Miami GP. After starting from fourth, it looked like a tough spot to win the grand prix, especially with teammate Lando Norris ahead in second. But the Brit’s moment allowed the Australian through.
He cleared Andrea Kimi Antonelli pretty soon and got on the tail of Verstappen. It took a while and some strategy to get through the Dutchman, but he did. Once through, he had a commanding lead while Norris struggled to get through the Red Bull driver. By the time he did, it was too late.
Post-race, Piastri did the ‘Griddy’ in parc ferme when celebrating with his team. It was due to the promise made to NFL star Jefferson, who plays for Minnesota Vikings. Sometime later after the race, a video surfaced where the Australian promised him to do the celebratory dance.
“It was an attempt at a Griddy, as you can tell, poorly executed,” said Piastri. “I met Justin Jefferson on Thursday, who has essentially made the Griddy world famous, and stupidly made a bet with him that if I won the race, then I would do one for him. After qualifying, I didn’t practice because I thought that was definitely not going to be needed.
“So yeah, that was my first attempt at a Griddy live on world TV. I stayed true to the bet, but that’s the one and only time you’ll be seeing me do that,” summed up Piastri, who took his third F1 win on the bounce to take a lead of 16 points over teammate Norris in the drivers’ standings.
He was happy to get another under his belt, especially in Miami after what transpired in 2024 when he lost the win due to strategy. “I enjoyed it at certain points, yes. It was tough at the beginning trying to get past Max,” continued Piastri. “I tried pretty hard to get past, with everything still on my car. It was not easy but I picked my moments when I needed to.
“I could tell that we had a lot of pace from the get-go today, and it was going to be a matter of when I got past, not if. But I wanted to do it as efficiently as I could because I knew once Lando got back behind me, he was going to be catching us a lot. I wanted to get through quickly but cleanly. I felt like I did a pretty good job of that, then built a gap.
“Maybe not the strongest second half of the race of my life, but I think building that gap and being quick at the right times was what I needed. I think this weekend was not my best, and a lot of that was Saturday. The race on Sunday was pretty solid, but the sprint, I was pretty frustrated with my performance.
“Ultimately, yes, I won the race this weekend, but I think the likelihood of winning many races [after] qualifying fourth is pretty low. I did a lot of things right, but there was definitely some good fortune there as well, and a very quick car. I don’t want to rely on that every single Sunday. Clearly, this is the exception to the pace we’ve had this year.
“Yes, we’ve always had a strong car, but the pace we had today from lap one it felt like was unexpected, even for us. I’ll definitely take the performance and we’ll try and work out how to do that every weekend, but there’s still definitely things to work on from a personal side and from a team point of view,” summed up Piastri, who was pleased how McLaren has reached the spot.
He recalled how it was two years back when McLaren were lapped at the same venue. “Compared to two years ago, it’s an incredibly different place to be,” said Piastri. “The determination and the hard work has always been there. Even two years ago, we knew that things were in the pipeline to help us come back to the front.
“So while we got lapped twice that day in Miami two years ago, there was optimism and determination, still. Clearly, last year with Lando’s win, that was nice for the whole team in terms of finally having a car capable of winning a race again, on merit. There was obviously the 1-2 in Monza a few years ago, but Miami last season was the turning point in winning races because we could be the quickest on track.
“That’s an incredible place to be. Now, it’s a continuation of that. The determination and hard work are still identical, just the joy and the celebrations are a bit more frequent, which is nice. But we know we have a lot of competition. Being first now means we have less tunnel time, less development time. That’s something we’ve enjoyed over our competitors for the last few years.
“So there are going to be challenges with being at the front, but it’s an incredible place to be,” summed up Piastri, as team boss Andrea Stella had praise for the work done by the Australian behind the scenes to improve his tyre management skills which was a deterrent last year in the races.
The Italian noted that it is not just the car that has improved to help it, but Piastri has put in an effort as well with his pool of engineers to get on top it with experience. “Looking at the way Oscar is mastering at managing tyre degradation at the moment, no way this improvement will come simply from the car,” said Stella. “The only way to exploit the improvements that we make with the car, take place only when the driver somehow understands what to do with the tyres and with the car.
“And this has happened not by chance or not because Oscar is getting little older, this is because there’s been a lot of work done by the engineers in terms of understanding the driving style, how you damage the tyres and how you prevent damaging the tyres. And this is very different from when you are graining at the front, graining at the rear, overheating at the front, overheating at the rear, it is not like you improve the way, you master the tyre in a way that is good for all seasons.
“There’s many ways that you need to be able to so. And like I say, I think this is testament to the quality of the work done by Oscar and the team around him. When I say so, even from Lando’s point of view, I think we have seen that there’s definitely improvements, if anything on the final stint on the hard tyres, I could see that the time that Lando was….if anything, a bit little faster than Oscar.
“And then for Lando, there was just too much time lost in the two situations with Verstappen to have what could have been an interesting situation between our two drivers but I am sure it will come in the future races,” summed up Stella.
Here’s promise: https://x.com/DavidFurones_/status/1918687388001325410
Here’s the dance: https://x.com/McLarenF1/status/1919146564544593972
https://x.com/F1/status/1919145936460079279
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-miami-grand-prix-pole-sitter-verstappen-fends-off-attack-from-norris-who-drops-to-p6-on-the-race-start.1831222251171539835
Here’s Max Verstappen against Oscar Piastri: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-miami-grand-prix-piastri-powers-past-verstappen-to-take-the-lead.1831223628333534553
Here’s more moves from McLaren pair: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-miami-grand-prix-mclaren-duo-piastri-and-norris-make-up-places-on-the-same-lap.1831223255677917594
Here’s Oscar Piastri on fight with Max Verstappen
Here’s how F1 Miami GP panned out
