Anthony Davidson provides theory on what was at fault for Oscar Piastri’s Australian GP crash

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McLaren driver Oscar Piastri suffered heartbreak in front of thousands of his own fans at the Australian Grand Prix after crashing on his way to the grid.

The Australian Grand Prix has provided plenty of talking points already, with Formula 1’s new regulations proving unpopular with many drivers.

Oscar Piastri was set to start from fifth on the grid alongside McLaren teammate Lando Norris, but a mistake at turn four on his way out of the pit lane saw him hit the barriers, causing terminal damage to his car.

DISASTER for Oscar Piastri! He crashes before the Australian Grand Prix has even started!

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Piastri previously spoke about the ‘Aussie curse’ that has stopped any home driver from finishing on the podium at a home race in the Formula 1 era.

Anthony Davidson was closely studying the footage of the 24-year-old’s crash and provided his theory on what went wrong.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri crashes out of the Australian Grand Prix before reaching the grid

Speaking on Sky Sports F1 (8/3 3:31 am) after seeing the accident, Davidson said: “Cold tyres at this stage [leaving the pit lane], doesn’t look too good on acceleration, and then see his head on each upshift.

“[It] sounds clunky, and these are what we call type one gear shifts. So it’s not fully synced yet.

“But also the downshifts sound quite bad as well. And then he gets on the throttle, and there’s a lot of power. Did you hear that swipe, that wheelspin? And then he short shifts, because of that, he feels a torque spike, they call it, and he short shifts to minimise the torque spike at that point.

“But now he puts his foot down, and he’s got nothing. The revs aren’t going up anymore, so he’s immediately on the radio, apparently saying, I’ve got no battery. It is not accelerating this car; I want more power here.

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“And then, on the braking, he’s obviously going to get a bit more battery regen, and then he exits turn three, and it’s really tentative stuff.

“In turn four, he puts his foot down and then gets more power. The combination of suddenly having a bit more power, I think normal power, I would say, and the cold tyres, and the fact he’s just come out of the pits, and everything hasn’t been normal for him. I do think that it caught him out.

“He’s been put into this situation where his mind is focused on the battery and not getting the usual amount of power down the straight, and then he comes to this situation, and maybe forgets the fact how cold his tyres are, but he’s definitely tentative on the accelerator, and then that final clunky upshift is the thing that’s spat the car around.

“So, a combination of mechanical and driver error, I would say.”

On the way to the grid, Max Verstappen suggested that while he wasn’t 100% sure what happened, he agreed with Anthony Davidson and thought that ‘the torque kicked in when he didn’t expect it’, highlighting the fact that drivers are expecting the cars to be unpredictable going forward.