What’s up with Oscar Piastri?
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri suffered a difficult start to the season at his home race in Australia
After a lacklustre end to last season, which saw him miss out on the world championship to McLaren teammate Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri could have done with a settled, confidence-building start to F1 2026.
But his punishment continued at last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, where an accident before the race came as another punch to the gut…
Oscar Piastri can’t catch a break
A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the 2026 Australian Grand Prix
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Recent history tells us that drivers who come oh-so close to the world championship, only to miss out at the end of the season, need a bit of time to get over it.
Mark Webber, for instance, was considered the title favourite for much of 2010, only to come up short at the last race.
The next time he stood on the top step of a podium? More than 12 months later at the final round of the following season.
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See also Nico Rosberg, who held a handsome lead over Lewis Hamilton at one stage in 2014, yet was also ultimately forced to settle for second at the season finale.
On that occasion, Rosberg seemed to spend most of 2015 recovering from it, eventually charging himself up again for one last swing at the title in 2016.
There has been hope that it might be different for Oscar Piastri in 2026.
So patchy was his end to last season that his defeat to Lando Norris ultimately should not have come as a great shock to the system.
There was an inevitability about it that should have made it easier for Oscar to stomach.
And his very placid and measured manner out of the car – never too high, never too low – also indicated that he would be just fine.
And maybe he will be fine.
But also maybe he won’t. At least not yet. Not for now.
Maybe he’s still, even on a subconscious level, recovering from how last season ended.
Maybe he’s still in the process of coming to terms with how he let such an advantage roll away from him so easily and with such little resistance.
Maybe the pain of last season, losing out despite holding a 34-point lead after Zandvoort, smashed into him so hard that he will not soon forget.
The disappointment he would have experienced when it was all said and done after Abu Dhabi – what could I have done differently? What should I have done differently? – is the kind that tortures you, hitting you last thing at night and first thing in the morning, throughout the winter break.
Most elite athletes will tell you that golden opportunities of the type presented to Piastri last season must be seized, because who is to know if they will ever come again?
Blink, as Oscar did, and suddenly you’re Mark Webber.
The great shame of Piastri’s season starting with a DNS is that, as at so many rounds in 2025, he was the stronger and more convincing McLaren driver in Australia.
With Norris never really recovering from his lost running in FP1, Piastri looked for all the world as if he had, if anything, returned more accomplished and complete for the experiences of the last 12 months.
Then came that small misjudgement and unexpected power surge on the reconnaissance lap.
Then came the hard hit with the wall.
And then came another punch to the gut – this time in his hometown, of all the places on Earth for it to happen – to add to the various body blows he has taken over the last six months.
In that moment, the whole pretence of a fresh start for Piastri in 2026 was punctured.
If Oscar’s accident looked like a hangover from the end of last season, in other words, that’s because it was.
What caused Oscar Piastri’s accident at the Australian Grand Prix?
Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after his accident in Melbourne, Piastri admitted that “a big element of that was me.”
He acknowledged that it was maybe unwise of him to use the exit kerb at Turn 4 on the reconnaissance lap, despite having no trouble with that kerb all weekend until that point.
Yet Piastri also alluded to a 100-kilowatt power surge from the Mercedes engine taking him by surprise as he accelerated out of the corner.
He said: “We had a couple of things going on.
“I think the first part I want to stress is that there is certainly a big element of that was me.
“Cold tyres. I have used that exit kerb every lap of the weekend, but I didn’t have to [on that occasion].
“At the same time, I had about 100 kilowatts extra power that I didn’t expect, which is not insignificant.
“I think the difficult part to take is everything was working normally. It’s just the function of how the engines have to work with the rules.
“It’s that part that’s difficult to accept. It would almost be easier in some ways if we just said there’s cold tyres and I was optimistic, but when you add in another factor like that it always is more difficult to take.”
As reported by PlanetF1.com on Tuesday, Piastri reported over team radio just moments before the accident that his battery was “completely empty already” just seconds after leaving the pits.
In that context, it is easy to see why an extra 100kw of energy would have surprised him as he applied the throttle.
Additional reporting by Mat Coch
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