Oscar Piastri in ‘recipe for disaster’ warning; addresses practice start mix-up

Oscar Piastri has called for talks ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, as he raised safety concerns at race starts, and uncertainties around overtaking.

For Piastri, it “sounds like a recipe for disaster” to have 22 of these low-downforce cars on a circuit, though race starts is where he believes the true safety hazard to be, claiming it could be like Formula 2 for some drivers. Piastri did clarify though that the chaotic practice start in Bahrain was not linked to the new engines.

Oscar Piastri claims ‘plenty of topics to address’ before Melbourne

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The first, official pre-season test of F1 2026 in Bahrain is complete. The new generation F1 cars have received mixed reviews from drivers. Piastri’s McLaren teammate, and reigning World Champion, Lando Norris, called the cars “a lot of fun,” while George Russell is waiting to see how the regulations develop, having suggested it is a “step forward.”

Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen though are among the drivers to have expressed concerns.

Verstappen was particularly punchy in his assessment, calling the new rules “anti-racing” and branding it “Formula E on steroids.”

Piastri got plenty of laps under his belt in the new McLaren on day three in Bahrain. In fact, he completed a mammoth 161 laps across the day.

McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari still looks like the top four, but in what order, changes from team to team, as the game of pass the parcel with the pacesetters tag continues.

“Where we are in the pecking order, I don’t know,” said Piastri, as he spoke with PlanetF1.com and others. “I think it kind of looks like the top four teams are still the top four teams, but I don’t know where exactly we sit in that at the moment.

“The cars are certainly different, that’s for sure. I think the low-speed corners probably feel the same, or maybe a little bit nicer because it’s a little bit lighter, but yeah, obviously the high-speed performance in terms of downforce is significantly less than last year.

“And we’ve been learning a lot about how to get the most out of the power unit this week, which, yeah, is unconventional, definitely. But, new challenges.”

With its 50/50 split of electric and biofuel power, the new engines are set to bring a major shake-up to how the stars of F1 2026 must drive their car.

One of the big talking points has been how the launch procedure will change at race starts. A practice at the end of day three in Bahrain caused concern, with Piastri one of several cars delayed in launching, while Franco Colapinto almost found the wall when he lit up the rear tyres in his Alpine, looking to generate some temperature.

Piastri said that there was nothing sinister going on from a power unit point of view.

“I think the start today was just a mix-up in instructions,” he said. “I got told to wait until whoever was in front of me had gone and then do my own launch, and not do it to the lights.

“Clearly, some other people had a different idea.

“So that was nothing to do with the power units.”

However, Piastri stresses that race starts is an area which requires urgent attention before the first race in Melbourne.

“Starts need to be addressed, because, probably as we’ve all seen, it’s a pretty complicated process now to have a safe start, let alone a competitive one,” he said.

“So it’s something that we’ll talk about between now and Melbourne, I’m sure.”

It is not only starts which Piastri believes should be a pre-Melbourne talking point.

“And there’s plenty of topics to address,” he continued. “Starts, overtaking.

“Overtaking is certainly going to be different as well.”

Gone is the Drag Reduction System [DRS]. Instead, drivers will have the electrical boost and overtake modes among their attacking armoury.

“DRS was obviously just a pure advantage used to gain, whereas now, with the energy boost, you’ve obviously got to harvest that extra energy somehow and then deploy it, which with some of the rules in place, is not always that straightforward,” said Piastri.

“There’s also some optimisation from all the manufacturers, I’m sure, on how to redistribute things and make overtaking as easy as it can be.

“I think following is very similar to last year, in all honesty, which is not a big surprise to me, but there’s definitely a lot of things to talk about and address before Melbourne.”

Put to him that he did not look particularly enamoured with what he has experienced in the F1 2026 machinery, Piastri added: “I think it’s just complex.

“There’s a lot of things that we’ve never had to do before, and they are just challenging by nature, because some of them are not very instinctive. And when you’ve kind of driven a certain way for the last 15 years, it’s pretty tough to undo some of those things, especially when some of them are lifting on straights or stuff like that.

“Obviously, as a driver, you never want to be lifting at any point.

“But yeah, I think, even without some of the challenges that we’ve got and the things we need to address as a sport, ultimately, they are cars that are slower, and then have less downforce and probably more power out of the corners, so they’re always going to feel difficult to drive and tricky.

“That aspect is kind of one thing, and then there’s all the aspects that are new and need some reform.”

Piastri stated that the cars do still feel “like an F1 car should” in terms of grip, though the “crazy amount of power” coming out of corners “is pretty tough to manage” at times.

“But I think we also need to remember that the cars we had last year were at some tracks, the fastest F1 cars ever, so anything that feels worse than that is always going to be not quite as fun at the start,” Piastri added.

“So I think it still feels sensible. There’s just a lot of other things that are very different.”

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Asked what the biggest safety concern is for him, starts or potential closing speeds when overtaking, Piastri pointed to the former.

However, he warned that, to his mind, it sounds like a “recipe for disaster” having 22 of these new low-downforce cars pounding around.

“I think the starts is probably the most obvious one for now,” he said. “Overtaking, it’s always going to be tough to manage until you’ve actually had a race.

“Whether we use straight mode at the start or not as well.

“I think a pack of 22 cars with a couple hundred points less downforce sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, but there’s a few of those aspects that need to be spoke about.”

Asked if he is worried that a debate around race starts could become political among the manufacturers, Piastri reasoned: “The thing is, everyone’s going to need different things for the start. And to be completely honest with you, I’m not sure any of us know exactly what we need yet.

“We’ve probably got rough ideas.

“I’m sure we’ll find a way to do a proper start. It’s just that the difference between a good and bad start last year was you got a bit of wheelspin or you had a bad reaction time, whereas this year, it could be, effectively, like an F2 race, where you almost go into anti-stall or something. You’re not just losing five meters or so. You can be losing six or seven spots, if it goes well.

“So, there’s a lot of things.”

Piastri concluded: “There’s so many things just from an even borderline safety point of view that need to be kind of figured out on track, that do need addressing.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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