Oscar Piastri crashes out of Australian Grand Prix on reconnaissance lap
Oscar Piastri (McLaren MCL40) crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix before the race start
McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix on the pre-race reconnaissance lap.
Piastri, the only Australian driver on the F1 2026 grid, had been expected to start Sunday’s race at Melbourne’s Albert Park from fifth place.
Oscar Piastri crashes out before F1 2026 Australian Grand Prix race start
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However, the 24-year-old lost control on the pre-race lap to the grid and crashed heavily into the barrier on the exit of Turn 4.
With severe damage to the right-front corner of his MCL40, Piastri was unable to go any further.
Footage showed McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella holding their hands to their heads on the pit wall as Piastri struck the barrier.
Oscar Piastri out of F1 2026 Australian Grand Prix
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Brown told Sky F1 on the grid ahead of the race start: “We’ve not seen anything on the data so far and he didn’t say anything on the radio.
“We’ll do a post-mortem after the race and see what happened.
“For now, we’ve go to focus on the car [Lando Norris] we have in the race and get the excitement level back up because it’s definitely disappointing for Oscar in his home race. Let’s see what happens now.
“I’m sure he’ll be sore about that one for a while, but these racecar drivers know how to recover quickly.
“Definitely not the way you want to get started but we’ll be back.”
George Russell, the Mercedes driver, is due to start the Australian Grand Prix from pole position.
Piastri’s off ahead of his home race comes after a patchy end to the 2025 season.
He held a 34-point lead after winning the Dutch Grand Prix last August, but that proved to be his final win of 2025 as he eventually slipped to third in the standings behind McLaren teammate and new world champion Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Piastri crashed on the opening lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku before spinning into retirement during a rain-affected sprint race in Brazil.
It meant he scored just three podium finishes across the final nine races of last season, ultimately finishing 13 points behind Norris.
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