Carlos Sainz offers explanation for Oscar Piastri blue flag mishap

Carlos Sainz said it was “impossible” to avoid a collision with Oscar Piastri after blue flag incident at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz made contact with Oscar Piastri exiting Turn 2 as the McLaren moved to lap the Williams. The Spaniard was handed a 5-second time penalty, but explained after the race that there had been an issue with the FIA’s blue flag system.

“We didn’t have blue lights on the steering which normally, when we are in fights like that, one where we are fighting for position, it helps us to understand whether we are getting lapped or not,” Sainz told the media.

“So at this stage I had no idea I was about to get lapped. And on top of that, I was in a big fight with Fernando trying to undercut him into the corner and I wouldn’t have expected Oscar to be there.

“And even if he was there, or I would have expected, he was on my dead spot on the angle so it was impossible honestly from my side to avoid it. So yeah, probably a bit better communication would have helped but at the same time a racing thing that sometimes happens.”

Piastri later retired from the race for an unrelated gearbox issue, and Sainz also finished with no points to add to the table.

Sainz’s blue flag solution? “We need to be faster to not get lapped”

The issue with the blue flags on the steering wheel was not the only blue flag problem in Hungary. They were erroneously shown around the track very early on in the race, but Sainz said this didn’t add to the confusion due to the clear rules around blue flags.

He did, however, offer a simple solution to the blue flag incidents- if the car was faster, they wouldn’t get lapped.

“No, there are very clear rules around it. And if we were not so slow, there wouldn’t be so many blue flags, so we know what the solution is.

“Everyone needs to catch up on the leaders because last year there were almost no blue flags because the whole field was within half a second, and this year we were getting lapped twice.

“But I think there were already blue flags after like five laps, it was definitely wrong in the system.

“I know something was wrong in the system and today there was a very difficult situation to control the blue flags but for sure, yeah, we need to be faster to not get lapped.”