Piastri’s home heartbreak: “I’ve only got myself to blame”

The pain of Oscar Piastri’s victory wishes coming to a rainy end was felt in every packed grandstand around Albert Park, however, the home hero hasn’t let the mistake ruin his weekend, insisting he is still “very proud of the job I did”.

It was always a daunting prospect, lining up on the front row of his home race — a race that has never seen an Australian driver podium or win around the evolved street circuit —however, dramatic weather conditions made that task seemingly impossible. 

In the process of cars crashing out on the formation and initial lap, Piastri lost the silver medal to Max Verstappen, with the Dutchman utilising the better side of the track to get the jump on Piastri further down the road.

“Yeah, the start was not amazing, but yeah, just got pinched on the inside a little bit and then got overtaken,” Piastri said.

“I think the pace was really strong until we pitted for slicks and I think Max locked up a little bit and went wide and I was able to show the pace I had. 

“So yeah, just a shame that all of that didn’t lead to the result we wanted to.”

Ten laps into the hectic race, Piastri edged closer to Verstappen, working to carve the interval down from 1.3 seconds to eight-tenths.

The second-running McLaren’s pace was strong enough to eventually make a successful move on Verstappen, aided by the Red Bull driver’s perfectly-timed lock-up into Turn 11.

From that moment, the only thing standing between Piastri and his dream home victory was his teammate (and later the weather conditions), meaning Lando Norris, over four seconds up the road, was his next target.

He sat just seven-tenths back on Norris, with the following lap seeing an even smaller margin separate the two eager teammates, and Piastri seemed to take a look at Norris into the third turn when the battle was called off by McLaren.

Instructed to “hold position”, the #81 dropped back three seconds before a change of heart saw McLaren revoke that instruction, giving Piastri the greatest news that he was ”free to race” Norris.

On the rules of engagement, or the formerly coined ‘papaya rules’, Piastri said the “pretty extreme” circumstances played a role in McLaren’s decision to instruct the drivers to hold, before allowing them to race just a few laps later.

“We were approaching back markers, one dry line, not knowing if there was going to be rain to come,” he said,

“I’ll speak to the team and try and understand better what the thinking was, but I think it’s always clear that those kind of calls can come in either direction.”

He added on the moment itself: “I think by the time we were free to race I kind of killed my front left a little bit getting to the back of Lando.

“So, by that point there wasn’t much I could do, so I think that was probably a pretty minor moment in today’s race.”

Piastri’s climb to Norris’ rear-wing was unfortunately interrupted by a race-resetting Safety Car, a period of time that brought the slick tyre into contention.

The McLaren drivers were handed fresh hard tyres, while Verstappen opted for mediums as the race got going again on Lap 42, however, for Oscar Piastri, his competitive race came to a slippery end at the final corner.

As heavy rain started to fall, Piastri followed Norris onto the gravel trap at Turn 12, but his recovery wasn’t as successful with the Australian sliding across the grass and coming to a stop.

Slowly manoeuvring his way back on track, the Australian found himself at the back of the pack, with the grandstands gasping as they watched the heart-breaking moment unfold in front of their very eyes.

“[I] tried to push a bit too much I guess,” he said.

“In those conditions it’s very difficult to judge just how slippery it’s going to be.

“I think from one lap to the next it had really changed a lot and I could see Lando going off in front of me, but I was also already in the corner basically, so there wasn’t much I could do to slow myself down at that point. 

“And then once you’re in the gravel and the grass you obviously try to keep the car as straight as possible. 

“And then obviously to get stuck in the grass like that was pretty unbelievable, sat in the car, but I’ve only got myself to blame for being there, so it’s a shame.”

Making his way through the remaining back markers, Piastri capitalised on the Ferrari duo’s double overtake on Gasly, drawing closer and passing the Frenchman for the final points position.

But he didn’t stop there, completing a daring last-lap overtake on Hamilton for P9, leaving the Formula 1 legend in the final points-scoring position on his Ferrari debut.

Looking ahead to next week’s first Sprint weekend of the season, the Australian’s proud effort in front of his home crowd revealed many positives he can take into China.

“I think for essentially 56 laps of today’s race, I was very proud of the job I did.

“The pace was really strong, and obviously disappointed with the mistake I made, but I think that doesn’t take away completely from how strong the whole weekend’s been, for not just the team, but for myself.

“I feel like I’ve done a good job all weekend, so I think it wouldn’t be pessimistic of me to just write off the whole weekend because of one mistake.”

Free Practice for the Chinese Grand Prix will kick off at 2:30 PM on March 21.

Image: McLaren F1

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