Oscar Piastri finds comfort from F1 champion: 'Spare a thought'

Damon Hill has empathised with the plight of Oscar Piastri following the Australian's miserable start to the new F1 season.

McLaren driver Piastri has yet to complete a racing lap in either of the first two grands prix, becoming the first driver in 58 years to endure such a wretched feat, remarkably since the man who founded the team he drives for, Bruce McLaren, in 1968.

In the season-opener on home soil, Piastri crashed on a reconnaissance lap to the grid at Melbourne's Albert Park. A week later, at the Shanghai International Circuit, a technical fault was discovered with his MCL60 shortly before the start of the race.

Remarkably, Piastri was joined in having a 'DNS' against his name by team-mate Lando Norris, whose car encountered a different technical issue.

In conversation with Johnny Herbert on the 'Stay on Track' podcast, finding an initial positive from what McLaren has suffered so far this season, 1997 F1 champion Hill said: "I thought they made a little bit of a step forward when they were running, [in the Sprint] in China.

"You remember this noise that the Mercedes-running teams were complaining a little bit that Mercedes were not letting them know exactly what they were doing. It's how you use it, not what you've got."

Herbert interjected, "Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team principal] says they haven't found it yet, that it's all there, but they haven't found it."

Hill continued, "He's even teasing them and telling them you've got to look a bit harder. We've given you the power unit, now you need to find out how to use the deployment and various things like that."

Convinced McLaren 'will get there', he added: "I just don't know where their ultimate peak is, whether it's up there with Mercedes. Maybe they can threaten Ferrari a bit."

Turning his attention to Piastri, he concluded: "But my point being, spare a thought for Oscar.

"I think someone asked the question, 'Who has ever started a season, but not started [the first] two races?'

"So we can't comment on the McLaren drivers because they haven't actually done anything yet."