Oscar Piastri crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix before his home race even started in dramatic scenes at the season-opener.
Piastri, born and raised in Melbourne, lost control of his McLaren car at turn four as he drove to the starting grid.
Piastri’s car spun into the wall, smashing the front of his car, and ruling him out of the first race of the 2026 F1 season.
Lando Norris, in an internal radio message, was told that Piastri downshifted on a kerb and immediately lost control of his car.
It continues a terrible trend for Australian drivers at their home race, with not one home driver ever finishing in the top-three.
It meant the P5 grid spot was vacant for the first race, handing an advantage to Lewis Hamilton behind – who stormed from seventh to third at the start.
Charles Leclerc took the lead of the race with a stunning start off the line, weaving his way through pole-sitter George Russell.
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But his McLaren suffered a total loss of downforce after riding the kerb on the exit of Turn 4, sending him into the wall and out of the race before even making it to the grid.
Sky Sports host Simon Lazenby said Albert Park had been “stunned into silence”, while 2009 world champion Jenson Button daid it was “devastating”.
“Such a tricky situation for him. Cold tyres, on the kerb – everything has come at once,” he said.
“Maybe he did a shorter upshift or when he upshifted, it gave him a lot of torque.”
World champion teammate Lando Norris was an early observer of the crash, asking his team over radio: “Did something happen? Or he just broken down?”
His engineer Will Joseph replied: “He lost it on the exit kerb at Turn 4 doing a shift.”
“Devastating. Such a tricky situation for him. Cold tyres, on the kerb – everything has come at once.“Maybe he did a shorter upshift or when he upshifted, it gave him a lot of torque.”
Analyst Anthony Davidson said that the crash appeared to be a combination of both “driver and mechanical” error.
“The combination of having more normal power, cold tyres and coming out of the pits, I think caught him out,” he said while dissecting the crash.
“He’s been put into this situation where his mind is focused on the battery and not getting the usual amount of power down the straight, then he comes into this situation.
