Oscar Piastri has experienced a nightmare start to the 2026 season. The McLaren driver has become the first in F1 history not to start the first two races of a season.
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Oscar Piastri found himself at the heart of a statistic as rare as it is embarrassing after the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix. The McLaren driver has indeed become the first driver in the history of the world championship to record two “Did Not Start” during the first two races of a season.
After his accident during the reconnaissance lap before the Australian Grand Prix, the Chinese weekend also ended without even seeing the Australian take the start.
This time, it was an electrical problem related to the power unit that forced the team to withdraw his car from the grid moments before the formation lap. Result: a second consecutive DNS in the Formula 1 history books.
An unprecedented case in the history of the championship
This situation is all the more surprising as it had never been observed before in the history of the Formula 1 World Championship.
Since the creation of the discipline in 1950, no fewer than 782 different drivers have taken part in at least one Grand Prix, for a total of 1151 races contested to date. Yet, none had so far recorded two DNS during the first two rounds of a season.
A similar precedent exists, however. In 1964, Tony Maggs also recorded two DNS during his first two participations of the year, at the 1964 Dutch Grand Prix and the 1964 Belgian Grand Prix. But this case remains different, because these two events were not the first on the F1 calendar that season: the South African driver was simply not entered in the opening round in Monaco.
A dark streak for McLaren
Piastri’s bad luck also recalls a historical episode for his team. Indeed, one must go back to 1969 to find a McLaren driver recording two consecutive DNS.
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Ironically, this driver was none other than the team’s founder, Bruce McLaren. During the 1969 United States Grand Prix and the 1969 Mexican Grand Prix, the New Zealander was unable to start due to mechanical problems, first engine-related and then linked to fuel injection.
A historical parallel that highlights the extent of the bad luck currently hitting the British team.
The situation was even more difficult for McLaren in China since Lando Norris also did not start. Victim of a similar electronic problem on his power unit, the Briton remained stationary in the garage and was also classified DNS for the first time in his career.
For Norris, this is a particular statistic: despite 154 Grand Prix entries, he now has only 153 actual starts.
A rare statistic for McLaren
With these two retirements even before the lights went out, McLaren recorded an extremely rare double DNS. One must go back to the 2005 United States Grand Prix to find a similar situation, when Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya did not start due to the famous Michelin tire fiasco in Indianapolis.
More recently, the team also experienced two consecutive DNS in 2017, when Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso were forced to withdraw from the 2017 Bahrain Grand Prix and the 2017 Russian Grand Prix.
For Piastri as for McLaren, the objective is now clear: to quickly turn the page on this particularly cruel start to the season and finally launch their 2026 campaign on better foundations.
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