McLaren confirm Oscar Piastri to miss start of Italian GP

McLaren have confirmed that Oscar Piastri will miss the start of the Italian Grand Prix this weekend at Monza.

The action in Italy starts with the first two practice sessions on Friday, but championship leader Oscar Piastri will sit out FP1 at Monza after official confirmation from the McLaren team.

Earlier in the week, it was announced that McLaren development driver Alex Dunne will compete in FP1 after making his F1 debut at the Austrian GP.

The Irish racing driver replaced Lando Norris for the session, where he finished an impressive fourth place and was not far off Piastri’s time.

GPFans has learnt that Dunne will replace Piastri in the McLaren this time around, as he aims to impress again in F1 machinery at the start of the Italian GP weekend.

Dunne to replace Piastri in FP1 at Italian Grand Prix

Dunne takes part in FP1 as part of F1’s rookie rule, which means each team must field a rookie driver at least twice in each car for a practice session in 2025.

Alongside Dunne, Paul Aron will make his debut with Alpine in FP1 at Monza, after originally driving on loan at Sauber for two sessions at Silverstone and in Hungary.

In between F1 sessions, Dunne has been competing in the F2 championship, and will continue to race in the series alongside his FP1 appearance this weekend at Monza.

Dunne is currently fifth in the F2 championship, and 30 points behind standings leader Leonardo Fornaroli, with the Irish youngster subjected to some bad luck in 2025.

The 19-year-old lost his feature race win at Spa, after he was handed a 10-place grid penalty for failing to 'engage the start set-up procedure at the start of the formation lap".

The McLaren development driver was also disqualified from his second place finish at the Red Bull Ring in the F1 feeder series, due to excessive wear on the plank underneath his car.

If not for these tiny errors with major repercussions, Dunne could be leading the F2 championship. However, the Irish driver still has four race weekends at Monza, Baku, Lusail and Yas Island to claw back ground in the title.

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