On two consecutive Sundays, the P5 white box on the starting grid has been left eerily vacant and abandoned. The first was bad enough, with thousands of fans adorned in green t-shirts perched in the grandstand, named after the hometown hero, left crestfallen. But the second was more excruciating, wheeled away from the starting blocks with just five minutes to go, joining a stricken companion in the garage.
To say the least, Oscar Piastri has endured the roughest of opening salvos to the 2026 season. After his devastating pre-race crash in Melbourne, his hometown, an electrical issue with his McLaren car removed him from the start line and out of the race in Shanghai. His teammate, Lando Norris, had an unrelated power unit problem of his own, with neither car participating in the Chinese Grand Prix.
