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Why Oscar Piastri is not racing at Australian GP. McLaren boss Zak Brown drops bombshell on exact issue
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri crashed out of Sunday’s Australian GP on the way to the grid, ruling him out of his home race.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri crashed out of Sunday’s Australian GP on the way to the grid, ruling him out of his home race. The 24-year-old crashed entering turn four, and hit the barrier before stopping on the opposite side of the track. He appeared to be uninjured from the crash, but his car was heavily damaged.
McLaren will now run with just one car, Lando Norris. George Russell starts on pole position for Sunday's race ahead of his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli.
What happened to Oscar Piastri?
Piastri suffered a dramatic setback at his home race after crashing before the start. The incident unfolded during the formation run toward the grid at Albert Park in Melbourne, about 40 minutes before the opening race of the 2026 season.
Just four corners into his first lap of the circuit, Piastri attempted to accelerate out of a turn and shift gears. Moments later, he lost control of the car and slammed into the barrier.
While Piastri himself was not injured, the impact destroyed the front wing and completely ripped off the nose cone of the McLaren. Thousands of spectators at a packed Albert Park were hoping to watch the hometown favorite compete. Many in the crowd wore McLaren colors in support of Piastri. Instead, they were left stunned after the crash.
Zak Brown weighs in
Now, there is a lot of speculation about a potential battery glitch or even cold tires. Brown was asked about the exact issue.
“We’ve not seen anything on the data so far, he didn’t say anything on the on the radio, so we’ll do a post-mortem after the race and see what happened,” Brown said.
“For now, we gotta focus on the car we have in the race and get the excitement level back up because that’s definitely a disappointment for Oscar at his home race,” Brown added.
When asked about how the team will focus on Piastri, Brown said, "Yeah, I’m sure he’ll be sore about that one for a while, but these race car drivers know how to recover quickly. So definitely not the way you want to get started, but he’ll be back.”
