McLaren explains 100kW spike behind Piastri crash<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\nDrivers have widely criticised the 2026 regulations, which place increased emphasis on electrical energy.<\/p>\n
Piastri said during the race that he was \u201cjust trying to learn as much as I can\u201d while watching from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second year in a row that the Australian has had to bounce back from a major disappointment in the Melbourne opener.<\/p>\n
Last year he was running second to Lando Norris when both McLarens speared off the road at Turn 12 amid a rain shower.<\/p>\n
While Norris recovered to win the race, Piastri lost considerable time stuck on the wet grass and eventually finished ninth.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year the result wasn\u2019t what I wanted but there was a lot of positives from the weekend,\u201d Piastri reflected on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year the disappointment is even greater but I think up until today, we did a lot of things well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe clearly identified some things we need to change and do a better job at.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut through practice and qualifying felt, I pretty comfortable, as well as you can with these cars, and felt I was building myself in nicely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat element is not dissimilar to last year, so I\u2019ll just try and take the learnings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reigning world champion Norris finished fifth on Sunday, almost a minute behind winner George Russell, who led a Mercedes 1-2.<\/p>\n
The McLaren had proven the fourth fastest car in qualifying, a far cry from the dominant position it held for much of 2025.<\/p>\n
Piastri qualified fifth on Saturday, one place ahead of Norris, having also led the team\u2019s charge in all three practice sessions.<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/285241.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri at the Australian Grand Prix. Image: XPB Images Piastri\u2019s season started in horror fashion when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,913,2333,12357,85],"class_list":["post-529425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mclaren","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-slot1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529425","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=529425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"McLaren\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Oscar-Piastri-Australian-Grand-Prix.jpg\")