Australian F1 Grand Prix: Oscar Piastri crashes before home GP even starts

Oscar Piastri says his McLaren suddenly "had 100 kilowatts more power" as he went spinning and crashing before the Australian Grand Prix.

The massive crowd at Albert Park was left in a state of disbelief as the Melbourne-born driver walked from his stricken McLaren on his way to the grid.

Leaving the pit lane with the rest of the field, minutes before the start of the grand prix, Piastri was slowly making his way around the Albert Park circuit.

He got onto the kerbs at the fourth corner, spinning into the wall on the other side of the Albert Park track, ripping his front wing off and dislodging his right front wheel.

A shattered Piastri said his car had a sudden surge of power at the same time he was shifting gears.

"Essentially, I had 100 kilowatts more power than I've had the whole weekend, at the point that I shifted.

"When I shifted, went into wheel spin, and given I was on the kerb already, it was a combination of bad factors."

Piastri was fastest in practice on Friday but qualified in fifth place for Sunday's race.

He was hoping to become the first Australian to finish on the podium in his home Formula 1 grand prix.

"Things like that shouldn't be happening anywhere but especially at my home race, it's even more disappointing," he said.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown said it was unclear in the immediate aftermath what had gone wrong for Piastri and his car.

"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," he told Sky.

"That's definitely disappointing for Oscar at his home race.

"He'll be sore about that one for a while, but these race car drivers know how to recover quickly. Definitely not the way you want to get started, but he'll be back."

It is a second straight year of misery for Piastri at his home GP after spinning out late in the 2025 race while battling teammate Lando Norris for first place.

New regulations for this season have made the F1 cars complex to drive.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen crashed at the beginning of Saturday's qualifying session, when his rear axle locked at the first corner and sent him spinning into the barriers.

Local favourite Oscar Piastri has silenced the crowd at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix by crashing out of the race on his way to the start line.

Piastri was fastest in practice on Friday but qualified in fifth place for Sunday's race.

He was slowly making his way through a reconnaissance lap on his way to his spot on the grid when he hit a kerb while exiting a corner and lost control.

Australian men's cricket captain Pat Cummins was in attendance and said the crowd was stunned into silence.

"Devastating," he told Sky Sports on the grid.

"Pretty silent crowd here after that. Shame to see."

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