The McLaren driver never made it to the grid at his home race in Melbourne after losing control on the reconnaissance lap and sliding into the wall, ending his weekend before the race had even begun.

Despite the disappointment, Piastri said the turnaround to another race weekend has helped him shift his focus.

“It was relatively quick to put that behind me – obviously it’s one I try to forget,” he said.

“I think having a race this weekend is always nice and there’s still plenty to focus on.

“There was still plenty to try and learn from all the running we did in Melbourne and even just for me, trying to understand what racing looks like now was interesting to watch at least.

“I’m not expecting [this weekend] to be dramatically different to Melbourne.

“I think we’ve identified quite a lot of areas where we can improve and where we could have done better, but I think most people will have those opportunities.

“I think it will be a similar picture but hopefully we can get a bit closer.”

The crash came moments before the start procedures were due to begin at Albert Park, when Piastri lost the rear of his car and hit the barriers at Turn 4 while making his way to the grid.

 

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The damage was severe enough to rule him out of the race, leaving him to watch from the sidelines as team-mate Lando Norris finished fifth.

Piastri explained in Shanghai that mentally moving on from the incident was not difficult given how quickly the calendar shifts to the next round.

“It was relatively quick to put that behind me,” he said.

“Obviously, yeah, one I’d rather forget, but I think having a race, you know, this weekend is always nice, and there’s still plenty to focus on.

“There’s still plenty to try and learn from all the running we did in Melbourne, and, you know, even just for me, trying to understand, you know, what racing looks like now was interesting to watch, at least.

“So, I think our chances, you know, I’m not expecting it to be dramatically different to Melbourne.

“I think we’ve identified, you know, quite a lot of areas where we can improve and where we could have done better, but I think most people will have those opportunities.

“So, I think it’ll be a similar picture, but hopefully we can get a bit closer.”

McLaren entered 2026 off the back of championship success in 2025, but the early signs in Melbourne suggested the team has ground to make up under the new regulations.

George Russell secured pole position and victory for Mercedes by a comfortable margin, while Norris was unable to challenge the frontrunners in the race.

Piastri admitted the team’s analysis since the opening round has already highlighted areas where more performance could have been extracted.

“I think we kind of learnt, you know, after qualifying especially, and then in the days since, that we didn’t necessarily optimise what we had in Melbourne, and I think, you know, through practice, the picture looked a lot more optimistic — I think overly optimistic at points,” he said.

“But, you know, it was a surprise for us to lose so much competitiveness from Friday to Saturday, and I think we’ve got a pretty good understanding of why now, so I think we can get closer.

“We still think we’re certainly going to have a deficit to, certainly, Mercedes, but, you know, I think we identified a lot of things we can do better.”

With the Chinese Grand Prix hosting the first Sprint weekend of the 2026 season, Piastri acknowledged that the limited running will make learning about the new generation of cars even more critical.

“I think, just trying to keep on top of things and keep executing and optimising things is the most important thing because, you know, I would say probably only Mercedes got close to optimising the package they had last weekend — certainly of the front contenders,” he added.

“And even then, I’m not sure that they did, and I’m sure they’ve learnt a lot already.

“So, I think anything you can do to fast-track your learning is a very big opportunity at the moment.”

2026 F1 Chinese Grand Prix – Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more