{"id":494389,"date":"2026-02-21T09:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T09:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/494389\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T09:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T09:41:09","slug":"oscar-piastri-warns-of-big-pitfalls-over-fresh-f1-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/494389\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri warns of &#8216;big pitfalls&#8217; over fresh F1 concern"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oscar Piastri has warned F1 drivers could face \u201cbig pitfalls\u201d if they are unable to get on top of their starting procedures this year.<\/p>\n<p>The F1 power units have undergone a significant change for the 2026 season, which has dramatically shifted how the drivers prepare to launch off the line at race starts.<\/p>\n<p>It has created mass uncertainty ahead of the opening round over how the cars will get away at the start, with some manufacturers &#8211; most notably Ferrari &#8211; showcasing that <a href=\"https:\/\/racingnews365.com\/ferrari-is-dominating-f1-race-starts-but-why\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">it has already got its systems into a strong place.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Teams have used the pre-season test to check their procedures, but with a lot of potential still untapped, Piastri acknowledged drivers could find themselves in trouble if they don&#8217;t optimise the process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s just very random at the moment, and we&#8217;re all kind of learning what makes a good start, what makes a bad start,\u201d Piastri told media including RacingNews365.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are some pretty big pitfalls you can find if you get yourself in trouble.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe procedure is one thing, but also just the way we do starts is much more difficult than last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou&#8217;ve got a lot of power. The MGU-K kicks in at a certain point. It&#8217;s trickier from every single angle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we&#8217;re seeing at the moment is people just getting things right and other people getting them very wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The opening round of the season takes place in Australia in two weeks&#8217; time, followed by trips to China and Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Piastri has predicted that there could be dramatic race starts across the first rounds before teams get on top of their methods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCertainly, in the first few races, we could see some starts that look a bit like what we have this week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;ll start to converge, hopefully pretty quickly, if you&#8217;re on the bad side of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has warned F1 drivers could face \u201cbig pitfalls\u201d if they are unable to get on top&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-494389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-calendar","13":"tag-f1-live","14":"tag-f1-results","15":"tag-f1-standings","16":"tag-ferrari","17":"tag-formula-1","18":"tag-formula1","19":"tag-lewis-hamilton","20":"tag-max-verstappen","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-racing","23":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}