Oscar Piastri’s pre-race crash at the Australian GP rocked the first race of the season and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has suggested the F1 might need to review the rules and regulations. Piastri was ruled out of the his home race and the opening GP of the year after heading into the wall when he lost control of his McLaren.
The Aussie F1 driver was supposed to start from fifth on the grid, but retired from the race with his car needing repair. There was plenty of speculation to what happened for the Aussie with the new engines introduced for the F1 season causing havoc ahead of the race.
And McLaren team principal Stella feels the F1 board might need to look at some changes after Piastri’s crash. Piastri admitted driver error was one issue, but soft tyres and a sudden burst of energy from the new engine also caused the incident.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has suggested the F1 might need to review the rules and regulations after Oscar Piastri’s (pictured right) pre-race crash. (Images: Getty Images)
One of the regulations means the car runs on even split of battery and engine. The engine helps charge the battery, but it can result in unpredictable changes to the car. This has resulted in a call for the FIA to consider looking at the regulations so the massive boost of power doesn’t cause more issues. “We will make sure we face this in a united way. We are a team in any situation that may involve anybody in our team,” Stella said.
“I think it requires a little bit of attention in terms of associating it with the regulations, necessarily. Certainly, these power units can be quite aggressive when they release all the power. We talk about 1000 horsepower coming all together, and when the tyres may be a little bit on the cold side, or if this power comes in an unpredictable way, as it happened to Oscar, then it can become very tricky.
“So I don’t want to be here saying I have an easy solution. But I’m here saying we should look into the regulations. These accidents were not a near miss. They are very material indication that there’s work to do. So we should do this work as the F1 community.”
Oscar Piastri’s Melbourne crash explained
Stella went into more detail surrounding Piastri’s crash having revealed the data shows the new engines can cause issues given the extra torque. And Stella felt a combination of issues they could hardly prepare for caused Piastri to go off the track.
“When it comes to the circumstances, what we observed, I think, is fundamentally three factors: the cold tyres that fall when the wheel spin starts. It starts in a very sudden way,” he added. “This compounds with him being on a kerb. It’s a kerb that he has used pretty much every single lap.
“Kerbs don’t make this easier, though, when the tyres are cold and this farther compounds with an element that doesn’t make it easier again, which is the fact that, with these oscillations and following the shift, there’s extra torque, let’s say, that when we look at the behaviour of the power unit, is sort of expected to happen like that, but it is not something that you would do unless it’s sort of requirements that you need to meet in terms of how you deploy your torque.”
Stella said he is confident Piastri can bounce back this weekend at the China GP. Fellow teammate Lando Norris finished in fifth place with McLaren taking confidence out of the first race of the season with the new engines.