Oscar Piastri: McLaren driver unable to start Australian GP after crashing on way to grid at home race in Melbourne
Oscar Piastri was unable to start the Australian Grand Prix; the McLaren driver crashed on his way to the grid before his home race had begun; F1 heads to China for a Sprint weekend, live on Sky Sports F1 next weekend
Sunday 8 March 2026 06:11, UK
Oscar Piastri was unable to start the Australian Grand Prix after crashing his McLaren on his way to the grid of his home race.
After the pit lane opened to allow the cars to make their way to the grid 40 minutes before lights out for the first race of the 2026 season, Piastri inexplicably lost control on the exit of Turn 4 and shunted into the barrier on the other side of the track.
The Australian, who had qualified in fifth, accepted responsibility for the incident, but also explained how elements of the sport's all-new power units contributed.
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"We had a bit of an issue out of the pits with no battery basically," Piastri told Sky Sports F1.
"Then, with the actual crash, there was a combination of a couple of things - there was a large element of just me with cold tyres, clipped the exit kerb, but I also had 100kW more power than expected.
"You put all of those together and it ends in the result we got.
"Obviously just disappointing and a scenario that shouldn't be happening."
George Russell went on to win the race as Mercedes sealed a one-two with Kimi Antonelli second, while Piastri's team-mate Lando Norris claimed fifth for the defending constructors' champions.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 on the grid moments after the crash, McLaren chief executive Zak Brown said: "We've not seen anything on the data so far. He didn't say anything on the radio, so we'll do a post-mortem after the race and see what happened.
"For now, we've got to focus on the car we have in the race and get the excitement level back up, because that's definitely disappointing for Oscar at his home race.
"I'm sure he'll be sore about that one for a while but these race car drivers know how to recover quickly. Definitely not the way you want to get started but he'll be back."
Formula 1 heads to Shanghai for the first Sprint weekend of the 2026 season at the Chinese Grand Prix from this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
