Disappointing F1 start for Piastri as Verstappen wins Bahrain Grand Prix
Oscar Piastri suffered a wretched start to life in Formula 1 when his debut Bahrain Grand Prix ended after just 14 laps with the Australian stuck in his team’s pit garage.
The 21-year-old was left shaking his head in dismay after his struggling McLaren was left stricken by an electronics problem.
Oscar Piastri’s McLaren Mercedes fell short at Bahrain.Credit:Getty Images
World champion Max Verstappen won the season-opening race on Sunday in a dominant one-two with Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez as Ferrari suffered agony under the floodlights.
Verstappen’s cruise from pole position, with Perez taking the chequered flag 11.9 seconds behind, was his first win in Bahrain and also the first time the double champion had triumphed in the opening race of a campaign.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was running in third place when he slowed and pulled over 17 laps from the end, shouting “No, no, no! No power” over the team radio.
Veteran double world champion Fernando Alonso then passed Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari with a thrilling wheel-to-wheel move 12 laps from the end to secure the final place on the podium for Aston Martin.
Max Verstappen en route to victory.Credit:Getty Images
Piastri, who had started 18th on the grid and had started reasonably well by moving up a couple of places, had complained over the team radio of gearbox problems.
He’d been told the mechanics would swap his steering wheel as soon as he pitted but when he came in, the stop dragged on agonisingly as it became clear the problem couldn’t be solved.
Piastri’s was the first retirement of the F1 season, a miserable baptism for the driver who has been touted for great things after a dazzling career in the F2 and F3 ranks.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown told Sky Sports: “Looks like he has some sort of electrical issue, a gearbox issue on track which was electronic-related.
“We changed steering wheels but it didn’t seem to have done the trick, so we have to diagnose what it is.”
Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris was also having problems on the track with “a pneumatic issue”, according to Brown, who shrugged: “It’s a challenging start to the year.”
Also in Bahrain on Sunday, Australian teenager Christian Mansell made his own slice of history, competing with a mobile phone in the cockpit of his car in the Formula 3 catgeory after stewards gave the go-ahead on medical grounds.
The 18-year-old has type one diabetes and the handset, fixed out of reach, allowed his coach to monitor blood sugar levels in real time through an implanted device connected to a mobile app via bluetooth.
Mansell’s coach was able to study the data and warn his driver if his blood sugar level presented a safety risk, the stewards of the Formula 1 support series said in a statement explaining the exemption.
Formula 3’s technical rules ordinarily bar any kind of wireless data transmission system in a car other than those approved by the FIA. The dispensation was limited to the Bahrain event, the stewards said.
Mansell finished 13th for Campos Racing in Saturday’s sprint and 13th in Sunday’s feature race.
AAP, Reuters
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