F1 Australian Grand Prix: Rising star Oscar Piastri remains on a mission to break Aussie curse at Albert Park

While young gun Oscar Piastri wasn’t able to register a top three spot at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, he said it’s been a ‘positive start’ to the 2024 season.

Oscar Piastri just missed the podium at the Australian F1 Grand Prix. Picture: Peter Fox/Getty Images

Hometown hero Oscar Piastri has labelled the McLaren team orders he was issued during the Australian Grand Prix as “completely fair” after falling painfully short of a podium finish in his home race, continuing Australia’s drought at Albert Park.

In a race which lost world champion Max Verstappen in the early laps, Piastri had been on track for a podium at the half-way mark of the race before the McLaren directive when he was told to swap positions with teammate Lando Norris.

The 2023 rookie of the rear finished the race in fourth place behind Norris, who was third behind the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc as the race finished under the virtual safety car after a scary George Russell crash.

Piastri’s finish equalled the best result for an Australian at Albert Park, with his now manager Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo also finishing fourth in Melbourne.

The young gun had been running in third position when he was told by the team to hand third place to Norris, who was pushing faster on fresher tyres behind him, on lap 29.

But Piastri said he was comfortable with the team’s decision, saying Norris had been faster than him at that stage of the race.

Australian Oscar Piastri. Sunday at the 2024 FORMULA 1 Melbourne Albert Park. Picture: Jason Edwards

“For me it was completely fair,” Piastri said after the race.

“He (Norris) qualified in front of me yesterday, went a bit longer on the first stop and he was catching me and quicker at that point of the race.

“At that point I was keeping with (Charles) Leclerc and Lando was catching both of us. I was honestly hoping that he would pass me and go and get Charles.

“But for me that was completely fair. Of course, at home, I would have loved to have been able to stay in third, but for me that was completely fair.

“I think with the different strategies we had and the tyre difference in terms of stop lap, I was expecting Lando to be quicker at that point and he was.”

Piastri’s hopes of staying in touch with the podium then took another hit when he lost critical time after he locked up his tyres at the second last corner 10 laps later, shortly before being called in for his final pit stop.

While the 22-year-old, who started the race in fifth position, admitted he was disappointed to fall short of the podium, he said it had still been a strong weekend for the team and himself.

“For me it has been a strong weekend. A couple of mistakes when it mattered, which was a bit frustrating,” Piastri said.

“But I think today has been a solid result. I think a little bit of an off at the end of the second stint and grained the tyres a little bit there as well. Just struggled a little bit in that part of the race, but I thought it was a pretty strong day.

“I don’t think I got ahead of myself. Of course, I knew it was a possibility (of a podium) at one point and if I was quick enough in the middle, it could have been a reality.

“I would have loved to have been one spot higher but I think for the team it has been an amazing weekend and honestly very happy with the gap to Ferrari, especially being a lot smaller this weekend.”

*The stewards hit Alonso with a 20-second penalty for potentially dangerous driving, dropping him from sixth to eighth in the final standings.

Piastri had been striving to break Australia’s podium drought at Albert Park and become the first Australian to secure a podium in Melbourne.

Ricciardo finished on the podium in 2014, but was later disqualified for a fuel flow breach.

Asked if there was an Australian curse at Albert Park, Piastri said he hoped to end it.

“Hopefully I can break it,” Piastri said.

“So close for so many of us. We’ll see what we can do next year, but just didn’t quite have enough today.”

Despite missing out on the podium, the result continues an impressive start to the 2024 campaign for Piastri, who has finished in the points in the first three races.

Piastri was eighth in the opening race in Bahrain and fourth in Saudi Arabia.

He said he had been able to get more out of the car than he hoped the last two races.

“Here and Saudi, definitely a bit more than we expected, I think here in particular,” he said.

“I didn’t quite expect to have this kind of pace around there. It has been a positive start, I think a clean start to the year as well, which has been good.

“I feel like I have made a step forward in some areas, still some work to go, but honestly pretty happy with this weekend’s work and excited for the next few races.”

Ricciardo said he was happy to see Piastri’s finish close to the podium.

Lando Norris took third ahead of the Aussie. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

“It seems to be an Aussie favourite (fourth), I’m happy,” Ricciardo said.

“Obviously I couldn’t get points, but Oscar obviously did a great top four and he’s a good kid. The more time I spend with him, I like him a lot and happy that he’s doing well for Aus.”

Asked if he felt any sympathy for Piastri missing out on a podium in front of his home crowd, Norris acknowledged Piastri’s help, but felt the end result would have been the same.

“I was a lot quicker, and I would have overtaken him anyway,” Norris said.

“It’s just you don’t want to delay the process of that happening. And the longer I kind of spent behind him, the worse it was making my chance of catching Charles and trying to be ahead of Charles.

“He made my life easier and I think he helped us as a team which I thank him for a lot and we have a lot of respect for one another in these kind of situations.

“But I don’t think the (end) result changed at all. But, yeah, for any driver who’s racing in front of their home fans, you want to be on the podium.

“I don’t think I would ever take anything away from that or for what Oscar has provided and helped for in the team. But I don’t think the end result changed, no matter what.”