Oscar Piastri shares special McLaren moment with inspirational young fan

Oscar Piastri shared a touching moment with young kart racer and two-time leukaemia survivor Harry during the Bahrain GP weekend

The McLaren Formula 1 team has shared a heartwarming moment between Oscar Piastri and a young fan named Harry.

During the busy Bahrain Grand Prix schedule, the Woking outfit arranged for the young fan, who has beaten leukaemia twice and currently competes in two-stroke karting, to meet his racing hero.

The Australian driver gave Harry a tour of the McLaren garage, talked him through his F1 steering wheel, took photos, signed his Piastri hat and shared some all-important karting advice.

"Well, for me, I always did a lot better when I made sure I was having fun," Piastri explained. "Trying to just keep learning, as well. If you've got a goal that you're trying to achieve, it gives your practice a bit more purpose."

The moment quickly drew the attention of fans. "I’m gonna cry. This is so heartwarming. So happy to hear he beat leukaemia TWICE and got to meet Oscar and get advice from him. Wishing Harry a long happy, safe, and healthy life ahead," one fan commented on X.

"Special moments. Good luck, Harry, and thank you, Oscar and McLaren. Love this," someone else posted, while another comment read: "Shows once again how teams and drivers can be great role models and inspirational to young people, and the not-so-young!"

Further comments included: "Good on you, Oscar. Champion driver," and "Drivers on the grid are all good guys."

Piastri qualified seventh for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, but will start from sixth on the grid as Red Bull's Isack Hadjar will take a five-place grid penalty. Looking ahead to the race tomorrow, the 25-year-old does not expect a "wildly different picture" in the grand prix.

"I would say we looked reasonable in the long runs yesterday, but our runs were slightly shorter than everyone else's. So for the amount of laps we did, it looks quite good, but not spectacular compared to everyone else," he explained to the media in Sepang.

"Obviously, dirty air is a pretty big topic around here because there's a fair bit of high speed and very long corners, so we'll have to wait and see.

"There's going to be a lot of strategy involved with the amount of deg there is, but I don't expect it to be a wildly different picture tomorrow."