Oscar Piastri delivers vow after home crash heartbreak

Oscar Piastri had pledged to "learn as much" as he can from the F1 curtain raiser at Albert Park, despite not starting the race after his devastating warm-up lap shunt.

The McLaren driver put his MCL40 in the wall during his reconnaissance lap to the grid, experiencing a 100kW surge of power on cold tyres when he got onto the kerb at Turn 4 in Melbourne.

It left him a passenger as his car careered into the barriers, ending his Australian Grand Prix before it had begun.

When asked how he picks himself back up again following the accident in front of his adoring hometown fans, a crestfallen Piastri told media, including RacingNews365: "I think just trying to learn as much as I can, even just by watching the race.

"Last year, whilst the result wasn't what I wanted, I felt like there were a lot of positives from the weekend.

"This year, obviously, the disappointment is even greater, but I think up until [the crash], I think we did a lot of things well."

The 24-year-old shared that even without the valuable data he would have amassed during the race, he and McLaren have already pinpointed room for improvement.

And although his weekend ended in misery, the nine-time grand prix winner was quick to highlight that the season-opening round was not a complete failure.

"We clearly identified some things we need to change and do a better job at," Piastri explained.

"But I think through practice and qualifying, I felt pretty comfortable — as comfortable as you can do in these cars.

"And yeah, it felt like I was building myself into it nicely; that element is not too dissimilar to 12 months ago, so I'll just try and take the learnings and come back next week."

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