Grill’d quietly tones down its Oscar Piastri burger promo as podiums dry up — fans cry “curse”
In September, Grill’d brought back the Oscar Piastri 81 Burger just as Australia’s newest title contender was charging. Piastri had stuck his McLaren on the top step at the Dutch Grand Prix and held a 34-point cushion over teammate Lando Norris in the standings — a remarkable position for the 23-year-old, who drives car No. 81 and has been central to McLaren’s 2025 surge.
The burger chain leaned into the moment. If Piastri finished on the podium, Grill’d promised a free bonus burger coupon on Mondays for members who bought the Oscar Piastri 81 Burger or Pack. The promo launched off the back of Piastri’s third place at Monza and, on paper, was set to run through Abu Dhabi.
Then, the podiums stopped.
Since Italy, Piastri’s season has gone ragged. There were crashes in Azerbaijan, in the Austin Sprint, and again in São Paulo, where a 10-second penalty for causing a collision compounded a bruising weekend. The net effect: no further silverware and, more importantly, the championship lead evaporating just when McLaren needed clean execution.
Somewhere in that messy stretch, Grill’d made a tweak. The signage and copy that had trumpeted “when Oscar Piastri podiums” became “when Oscar races.” The deal didn’t disappear — the brand just took the risk out of it.
On social media, that read like an admission of bad timing. Fans, never ones to miss a superstition when F1 form turns, branded it the “burger curse.” The theories ranged from lighthearted to lightly cynical: everything from “take it off the menu before his luck gets worse” to “they’re ducking free burgers.”
To be clear, there’s no evidence Grill’d is orchestrating anything beyond a classic marketer’s pivot. Plenty of brands attach promotions to sports stars when the graph is pointing up; plenty soften them when the results stop coming. Still, when the star in question is an Australian in the thick of a title fight, a burger promo can morph into folklore at lightning speed.
There’s a broader truth behind the memes. Piastri’s mid-season rhythm fell out of tune at exactly the wrong time. He and Norris have spent most of 2025 pushing each other into a higher operating window, and McLaren’s car has looked robust over a range of circuits. But pressure tilts everything. Small errors become costly ones. That 10-second hit in Brazil — deserved or harsh will depend on which replay you pick — was emblematic of a run where Piastri’s margins narrowed and his luck frayed.
From McLaren’s side, the target doesn’t change: maximize points, limit the own goals, keep both cars in the fight every Sunday. Piastri’s ceiling is obvious; so is his reset button. He’s been tidy under stress since his junior days and doesn’t rattle easily. If there’s a driver on the grid likely to treat a burger-based hoodoo as background noise, it’s the kid from Melbourne who quietly turned himself into a race winner.
As for Grill’d, you can understand the recalibration. Tying a freebie to podiums is great when they’re routine. When they’re not, the campaign becomes a running gag and risks attaching your brand to a cold streak. “When Oscar races” offers the same hook without the wait for parc fermé.
Would scrapping the promo altogether mollify the curse crowd? Doubtful. Superstition moves on the next breeze. If Piastri climbs back on the rostrum, the same fans will claim the exorcism’s complete. If he hits another rough weekend, they’ll say it’s the lettuce.
The title picture remains what it is: volatile, high-wire, and still, somehow, within reach if McLaren lands its setup windows and Piastri steadies the weekends. That’s the part that really matters. Not a marketing line. Not a coupon code. The only thing “cursed” in F1 is momentum — when you’ve got it, you feel untouchable; when you don’t, even a burger ad looks like an omen.
In the meantime, Grill’d gets to keep its promo alive without relying on a champagne moment. Piastri gets a clear runway to do what he does best. And the rest of us get a reminder that in this sport, even the side dishes can become part of the main story.
