Oscar Piastri apologises after embarrassing Australia disaster

Oscar Piastri has apologised to the Australian GP fans after crashing out of the season-opener before the race even started.

Due to start in fifth, Piastri crashed at Turn 4 on the recon lap from the pit-lane to the grid after getting on the exit kerb and spearing into the concrete barrier, destroying the McLaren. 

It means the Melbourne native recorded a 'Did Not Start' at his home grand prix, as he broke down exactly what had happened whilst issuing an apology to the huge Albert Park crowd, many of whom had turned out to season Piastri. 

"I'm just disappointed, a scenario like that just shouldn't happen," Piastri told media, including RacingNews365 of his first career DNS. 

"We had a couple of things going on, but the first part, which I want to stress, is that a big element of it was me. I had cold tyres.

"It was just shock and surprise. I was backwards before I even really had a chance to react; it all happened pretty quickly.

"But crashing out of the race, whilst trying to get to the race, is a situation that shouldn't happen."

"I have used that exit kerb every lap of the weekend, but I didn't need to there. At the same time, I had 100 kilowatts of extra power that I didn't expect, which is not insignificant, but the difficult part to take is that everything was working normally. It is just the function of how the engines have to work with the rules.

"That's the difficult part to accept. It would almost be easier in some ways if we just said there are cold tyres, and I was optimistic, but when you add in another factor like that, it is even more painful. 

"I really don't have many other words than that, but I'm just very sorry for everyone who came out to support me. 

"It is clearly not the way I wanted to start the year."