Piastri, competing in his first Formula One race, retires

Australian Oscar Piastri's Formula One debut in the opening race of the season in Bahrain on Sunday lasted 14 laps until his McLaren was towed into the garage due to an electrical issue. The 21-year-old driver had complained on the radio about gearbox issues, and he was told that when he pitted, the mechanics would switch out his steering wheel. As the tyres were replaced and nothing occurred, the stop dragged on with the pit team waiting as the seconds passed. Piastri was the first driver to retire in what would be a season-high 23 races. "It was unfortunate that it was over so quickly. We made some excellent overtakes, got off to a strong start, and were moving fairly well "said he. "I believed we were doing a fantastic job up until the electricity crisis." Changing the steering wheel was supposed to help, but regrettably it didn't." Piastri, who joined the team to take the position of fellow countryman Daniel Ricciardo, claimed he had still gained a lot from the experience. There are advantages to be had, and the car appeared to be moving faster during the race, he added. Lando Norris, a teammate, was the last to cross the finish line in 17th place, two laps behind race winner and defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull. He had to pit every 10 laps to refuel the system since his car's power unit had a pneumatic pressure leak. Although we wanted to stay in the race for as long as we could in case there was a safety car or whatever, "we had a few difficulties we had to solve, which actually pulled us out of the race," he stated.