After just two rounds, the McLaren driver is yet to complete a grand prix racing lap this season.
The nightmare start began at the opening round in Australia, where Piastri crashed on his way to the grid at Albert Park, ruling him out before the race had even started in front of his home crowd.
Things barely improved a week later in China.
Although Piastri made it to the grid at the Shanghai International Circuit, he was pushed back to the garage moments before the formation lap with an electrical issue that forced McLaren to retire the car before the race began.
Teammate Lando Norris also failed to start the race, suffering a separate electrical problem that prevented him from leaving the garage.
It marked McLaren’s first double DNS since the infamous 2005 United States Grand Prix, while Piastri became the first McLaren driver since Bruce McLaren in 1969 to fail to start two consecutive races.
Buy tickets
The consequences for Piastri have been even more severe in the bigger picture.
Across the opening two rounds of the season, the Australian has just three championship points to his name — scored thanks to a sixth-place finish in the Sprint race in China.
The contrast to his start last season could hardly be more dramatic.
At the same stage of the 2025 campaign, Piastri had already secured a victory and sat on 34 points after two races, having won the Chinese Grand Prix.
Expectations heading into 2026 were also extremely high after his breakout 2025 season.
Piastri came agonisingly close to becoming world champion last year, ultimately falling just 13 points short in the title fight, having led the standings for the majority of the season.
With that momentum behind him, the 24-year-old entered the new season hoping to mount another challenge and potentially become the first Australian since 1980 to win the drivers’ championship.
Instead, the opening rounds have raised early concerns for McLaren more broadly.
The introduction of F1’s sweeping new technical regulations for 2026 has reshuffled the competitive order, and both Piastri and Norris have acknowledged the team currently lacks the pace to challenge the front-runners.
Even before the reliability issues emerged on Sunday in Shanghai, the team had admitted its pace was not yet strong enough to consistently challenge rivals such as Mercedes and Ferrari.
Piastri himself was blunt about the situation following the Sprint race in China.
“I think we just need to find a lot more lap time,” he said.
“I think it was pretty clear that we just didn’t have the pace to match Ferrari or Mercedes.”
There is still an enormous amount of the 2026 season remaining, and the impact of the new regulations means teams are expected to develop rapidly throughout the year.
But with two races gone, a shortened calendar following the cancellation of two rounds, minimal points on the board, and reliability concerns already emerging, Piastri’s campaign has started in the worst possible way.
Which raises the question: after such a brutal opening to the year, is Oscar Piastri’s 2026 season already cooked?
Discussion about this post