Oscar Piastri reveals F1’s unofficial “UNO” world championship and George Russell’s “questionable” rules

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has revealed that he, George Russell and Alex Albon held an "UNO World Championship" that took place during travel days between some of the races of the 2025 Formula 1 season. Admitting there were "questionable rules" between the trio, he opened up on what he did during his downtime. 

Talking on F1's Off The Grid with presenter Lawrence Barretto, the Australian explained that a long-haul flight between races turned from an impromptu game of UNO into something larger.

“You're just chatting, you're sleeping. What’s going on?” Barretto asked about the travel time between races when drivers share flights.

“Myself, George Russell and Alex Albon had an UNO World Championship on the way from Baku to Singapore last year,” Piastri laughed. “There was some questionable rule decisions, and rules that I’d never heard of playing UNO before from some of the others, mainly George.

"Apparently, they were family rules."

Barretto asked whether these rules from the Mercedes driver tipped the scales in his favour. 

"Yes, they did," he smiled. "We’re always competitive at everything, all the drivers. It’s always good fun.”

His competitiveness predates his career in motorsport. Like many, including seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, he started with RC racing. 

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

"Been a competitive person since I was really little," he said. "But channelling that into racing and motorsport...Yeah, started with RC cars, won a national championship at nine and then started racing go-karts a year later."

Piastri, like a lot of drivers, lives in Monaco. 

"It's convenient when you want to go and play padel or do other things," he said on the subject. "Also makes travelling to the races convenient. Like I'm sure most people have seen, we often travel to races together and stuff on those plane journeys."

He added: “It's pretty cool to come here when the races are done. It's a bit more relaxed when there's no racing.”

After a strong start to his career in F1 and a championship contender for 2025, he has suddenly exploded in popularity - something he's still getting to grips with. 

“It is still a little bit strange,” he said. “Obviously at the track you expect the attention, but there has been times where you go in the supermarket or whatever, out of nowhere, someone's asking for a photo or an autograph or whatever, or even just asking, 'is that really you?'”

Piastri will be hoping to continue the momentum he's found in his first three seasons into 2026.