Oscar Piastri exits Australia Grand Prix prior to the race commencement.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Local favorite Oscar Piastri was unable to start his home race, the Australian Grand Prix, after crashing on his way to the grid.
Shortly after departing the pit lane and while navigating to his grid position, Piastri appeared to have a wheel drop onto the kerb at Turn 4, resulting in a spin and collision with the wall.
This incident occurred in front of a record audience at Albert Park. Piastri had qualified in fifth place and was aiming to break the longstanding curse of the race, which has yet to see an Australian driver finish on the podium.
“It’s obviously very disappointing,” a downcast Piastri expressed to the media as the race progressed on the screens around him in the media area. “I don’t really have many other words to say. I’m just very sorry, of course, for everyone who came out to support me.”
“This is clearly not how I wanted to begin the year either. So, yeah, I can only apologize.”
Piastri was uncertain about how he ended up in the wall but acknowledged his responsibility, although he suggested it might have been influenced by the complexities of F1’s new car. This was Piastri’s first experience driving one of the new vehicles to the grid.
“We had a few factors at play. The first thing I want to emphasize is that a significant part of it was me, you know, cold tyres… I have used that exit kerb every lap of the weekend, but, you know, I didn’t have to.”
“At the same time, I had about 100 kilowatts more power than I anticipated, which is not trivial. The challenging aspect to accept is that everything was functioning normally. It’s just a consequence of how the engines must operate under the regulations. So, that’s the part that’s hard to come to terms with.”
No Australian driver has ever reached the podium in this race, but Piastri, starting from fifth, had hoped to change that. When asked about the ongoing curse, Piastri simply sighed and remarked: “Clearly, it still lives.”
Source: espn.com
