Oscar Piastri squinting in the sun during 2026 Bahrain testing — Photo: © IMAGO

Australian Grand Prix

Oscar Piastri crashes out of F1 Australian Grand Prix BEFORE the formation lap

The Aussie's day appears to be over

Chris Deeley

Sunday 8 March 2026 04:34 Updated: 04:50

The Australian Grand Prix home driver curse hit Oscar Piastri with its full weight on Sunday in Melbourne, the McLaren F1 driver crashing on the way to the grid.

The hometown hero will miss his home race after hitting the wall hard with under 40 minutes until the green flag, one of the most humiliating situations any F1 driver can find themselves in.

Piastri lost control on the exit kerb at Turn 4 while shifting gears, destroying the right-hand side of his McLaren and any chance of him earning a first podium in front of his home fans.

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The Aussie had been slated to start fifth on the grid after a tricky weekend, with drivers and teams still getting used to the brand new 2026 spec cars.

F1 Qualifying Results: Verstappen crashes out, Russell dominates

McLaren boss: Crash currently a mystery

Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli both crashed on Saturday, the former apparently due to a software issue which locked his rear axle, but their cars were repaired in more than enough time to make the grid.

Piastri's incident was faintly reminiscent of Max Verstappen in Hungary in 2020, when he too crashed on his way to the grid, although that happened in damp conditions and the Dutchman was able to limp back around to the grid and get his car repaired with just seconds to spare.

McLaren boss Zak Brown told Sky Sports: “We’ve not seen anything on the data so far. He didn’t say anything on the radio, so we’ll do a post-mortem after the race and see what happened.

“For now, we’ve got to focus on the car we have in the race and get the excitement level back up, because that’s definitely disappointing for Oscar at his home race.

“I’m sure he’ll be sore about that one for a while but these race car drivers know how to recovery quickly. Definitely not the way you want to get started, but he’ll be back."

McLaren Oscar Piastri Australian Grand Prix