Rookie McLaren driver, Oscar Piastri is out of the Bahrain Grand Prix after running into a terminal issue with his engine on Lap 14 of 57.
The 21-year-old was forced to retire from his first Formula 1 Grand Prix after entering the pits for a steering wheel change.
“It’s more than that, the engine was dead,” Sky Sports’ Ted Kravitz confirmed to viewers, “He’s shaking his head, and what a miserable start for Oscar Piastri.
“We’re all expecting him to have a stellar Grand Prix career, but this is not what he wanted”.
Unfortunately, we are forced to retire Oscar's car from the race. 💔 #BahrainGP 🇧🇭 pic.twitter.com/PSIIpyt5oo
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 5, 2023
Kravitz went on to pose doubt on whether or not Lando Norris would finish the season opener and said: “I’ve got some bad news about Lando, guys.
“He’s coming in again to top him up with the air again but I don’t know how many times they can keep pitting him”.
Although Norris is running last, the team sent an update out on Twitter to confirm they’re “managing” a PU issue.
Lando stops again as we are managing a PU issue.
[Lap 19/57] #BahrainGP 🇧🇭 pic.twitter.com/8wDkw1XbQP
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 5, 2023
Commenting on the issue for Piastri, McLaren Racing CEO, Zak Brown, said: “It looks like he has some sort of electrical issue, he had a gearbox-related issue on track which I think was electronic related.
“We changed steering wheels but that doesn’t seem to have done the trick so we will have to diagnose what it is, but appears to be electrical related.”
Speaking on Sunday evening, Norris said: “A very tough race. We had a few issues we had to manage, which really took us out of the race but we tried to stay in it for as long as possible, just in case there was a Safety Car or something and we might have had a chance at the end. I think the pace was alright otherwise.
“Just too many issues today to fight for points, so we’ll go again next time”.
However, an upbeat Piastri added: “Obviously not the finish to the weekend that I wanted but there are positives to take, and the car seemed to have better pace in the race.
“I still learned a lot and I’m glad I’ve now made my debut, and experienced some of the F1 race weekend firsts. I’m now looking forward to having a better weekend in Saudi Arabia”.
Here’s the starting grid as all 20 drivers get set for the first points battle of 2023 in Bahrain
