How Oscar Piastri has moved on after ’embarrassing’ start to F1 season in Melbourne following pre-race crash

Admitting his home Melbourne outing was a race to forget, F1 star Oscar Piastri insists he has already put his ’embarrassing’ start to the season behind him as he returns to the scene of his 2025 triumph in China.

The Aussie, 24, adopted an optimistic face in Shanghai as he reflected that he had still been able to learn quite a bit from simply watching his home grand prix last weekend after crashing out in a reconnaissance lap just before the race.

Piastri believes he and his McLaren team have learned enough from the first race in Formula One’s much-changed 2026 world to be more competitive this weekend, even if they are making no wild predictions about overhauling an ominous-looking Mercedes team that opened the season with a dominant one-two finish.

‘I think we learned, after qualifying especially and in the days since, that we didn’t necessarily optimise what we had in Melbourne,’ mused Piastri, who had out-qualified his teammate – world champion Lando Norris – before Sunday’s pre-race calamity.

‘Throughout practice, the picture looked a lot more optimistic – I think overly optimistic at points – but it was a surprise for us to lose so much competitiveness from Friday to Saturday.

‘I think we’ve got a pretty good understanding of why now, so I think we can get closer (to Mercedes).

Piastri shocked the crowd after crashing his car (pictured) on the reconnaissance lap of the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park on March 8

The 24-year-old will now turn his attention to the Chinese Grand Prix – the race he won in 2025

‘We (McLaren) still think we are going to have a deficit to Mercedes, but I think we identified a lot of things we can do better.’

Mentally, Piastri – third in last year’s Drivers’ Championship – is up for the fight again.

After last year’s Australian Grand Prix, he bounced back to win Shanghai seven days later.

‘I was relatively quick to put that (2026 result) behind me…and having a race this weekend is always nice, so there’s plenty to focus on,’ he said.

‘I’m fine, I’m ready to get back into it. 

‘I still tried to learn as much as I could from the (Melbourne) race.

‘There’s definitely positives to take from last weekend, and even though it’s a lot more embarrassing this year, I’m only two points worse off than I was at this point 12 months ago.’

The Chinese Grand Prix will be staged at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sunday, March 15 from 6pm AEDT.