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He said McLaren was still working out what went wrong, but accepted responsibility for his part in the mistake.
“I’m very sorry for everyone that came out to support me. It’s obviously not the way I wanted to start the year either,” Piastri said.
“I think last year, whilst the result wasn’t what I wanted, I felt like there was a lot of positives from the weekend. This year obviously the disappointment is even greater.”
Immediately after the accident McLaren chief executive Zak Brown could not explain it.
“We’ve not seen anything on the data. He [Piastri] didn’t say anything on the radio. We’ll do a post-mortem after the race,” said Brown.
“I’m sure he [Piastri] will be sore about that one for a while, but these race car drivers know how to recover quickly. Not the way he wanted to get started, but he’ll be back.”
Piastri’s drama started when he left the pits and was shifting up through the gears.
Piastri and teammate Lando Norris during the drivers’ parade. Credit: Getty Images
He felt what’s called a “torque spike”, according to former F1 racer Antony Davidson on Sky Sports, and the engine power kicking in through cold tyres conspired against him.
“His mind was focused on the battery [energy],” Davidson said, saying it was combination of driver and mechanical error that speared him into the wall.
The incident is another chapter in a history of hard luck stories for Australian drivers at Albert Park, where no Australian has finished on the podium.
Daniel Ricciardo was denied a podium finish in 2014 by a disqualification after the race.
Piastri spun out of his home grand prix while in contention during last year’s race, and rallied to finish 9th.
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The race itself claimed two more casualties when Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar and Cadillac’s Valteri Bottas bowed out.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso appeared to have retired on the 15th lap but later rejoined the race.
MORE TO COME
