Piastri weighs into calls for Australian F1 night race

Despite his boss backing calls for the Australian Grand Prix to become a night race, Oscar Piastri insists things are just fine at the Melbourne track.

Earlier this year, sacked Red Bull team principal Christian Horner tabled the notion of the F1 action at Albert Park joining the six other races on the calendar under the lights.

The 2026 season will see night-time or twilight racing at Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but as for Melbourne? Leave it alone, says Piastri who argues drivers prefer day races.

“I think it is nice the way it is,” the 24-year-old said. “It is obviously better when it is sunny, but I don’t think it needs to be under lights.

“We’ve got a lot of races now that are night races, I think certainly for us as drivers often the atmosphere is actually better during the day because you can see the fans a lot more, a lot of the grandstands at some night races can be quite dark.

“Even in Melbourne you see the skyline and everything so I am happy with the way it is.”

A night race in Australia would no doubt be welcomed by European broadcasters with lights out in Melbourne currently scheduled for 4am in London.

“It would be cool under lights,” said McLaren CEO Zak Brown said. “I think it would be cool. I like night racing.

“In general, I don’t think we have enough night races and I think that race in particular (would work) because the weather is always good, it’s a beautiful setting and I think it would look good under lights.

“I love the Australian race …. fans are very knowledgeable, (it’s) right in the city, great restaurants, hotels, weather 99 per cent of the time is very good and it’s packed.

“I like big events, it’s 400,000 over the course of the weekend so it’s a tier one Grand Prix, a great way to start the season.”

With a start time of 3pm AEDT scheduled for 2026, Australian Grand Prix CEO Travis Auld has no plans to be making changes to suit "European bias".

“There used to be a lot more pressure for a night race, purely because of the European bias of the calendar," Auld said. "As the calendar has grown and broadened, I’m not sure that’s the case as much anymore.

“And in fact, I think we share the view with F1, that this event works pretty well during the day with the backdrop of the city. So, at the moment, we don’t have any great reason to consider changing the time.”

The Australian Grand Prix is this weekend Friday, March 6 to Sunday, March 8

• 3pm AEDT: Victoria, NSW, ACT, Tasmania
• 2:30pm ACDT: South Australia
• 2pm: AEST: Queensland
• 1.30pm ACST: Northern Territory
• 12pm: AWST: Western Australia

Weekend schedule (AEDT)

• Free practice 1: 12:30pm-1:30pm, Friday, March 6
• Free practice 2: 4pm-5pm, Friday March 6
• Free practice 3: 12:30pm-1:30pm, Saturday, March 7
• Qualifying: 4pm-5pm, Saturday March 7
• Grand prix: 3pm, Sunday March 8