Oscar Piastri has revealed he exchanged messages with Carlos Sainz following their collision throughout the Hungarian Grand Prix, when the Williams driver hit the McLaren whereas being lapped amid a failure of F1’s automated blue flag system.
The incident at Flip 2 value Piastri the lead of the race. The Australian had been working by means of lapped site visitors after his second pit cease when Sainz, battling Fernando Alonso for place close to the again of the sector, swung again onto the racing line simply as Piastri moved up the within to go him.
Piastri was scathing within the fast aftermath, describing the collision as “unacceptable” and “one of many dumbest issues I’ve ever seen on a race monitor.”
The GPS-based blue flag system had malfunctioned from round lap six onwards, leaving drivers with out the standard cockpit warnings and forcing race management to revert to guide marshalling.
Nevertheless, post-race evaluation confirmed Sainz had handed seven blue flag trackside panels within the moments earlier than contact and had been knowledgeable over workforce radio that Piastri was approaching.
The stewards discovered Sainz wholly accountable and handed him a five-second time penalty. Piastri, in the meantime, finally retired from the race on Lap 56 with an unrelated gearbox failure.
Talking forward of the Dutch Grand Prix, the nine-time grand prix winner confirmed he had been in contact with Sainz for the reason that incident.
“We had a few messages, sure,” he advised media, together with RacingNews365. “Yeah, we had a few messages…”
Piastri didn’t elaborate on the content material of these exchanges, however his tone was measured in comparison with the fury he expressed on the Hungaroring.
“In Hungary, the truth that the system wasn’t working correctly was clearly not ideally suited,” he added when requested if the matter was one thing to debate within the drivers’ briefing at Zandvoort.
“However on the finish of the day, the groups and the drivers have a accountability to be sure that they’re following the principles.
“I believe we’re in all probability the one sequence on this planet that has that blue flag system, and each different sequence… okay, some sequence have totally different guidelines about blue flags, however I do not suppose that essentially wants to vary.
“I believe it is simply that when that system would not work, clearly, there must be extra consideration on blue flags.”
