Oscar Piastri has opened up about his angry team radio messages during the Hungarian Grand Prix, admitting his frustration boiled over after contact with backmarker Carlos Sainz cost him crucial time at a pivotal stage of the 70-lap race.
The Australian had already made his second pit stop when he came across the Williams driver, who was battling Fernando Alonso carelessly despite blue flags being waved.
Contact between the two cost Piastri valuable seconds in his fight against Lando Norris, who eventually won in Budapest.
Although Piastri had pitted first from the lead, and the undercut is particularly strong at the Hungaroring, it resulted in his McLaren team-mate gaining track position when he came in to pit soon after.
The 25-year-old's response on the radio was laced with fury, first directed at Sainz and then at his own team. Immediately after the collision, Piastri raged: "Get out of the ******* way, you idiot. Oh my god."
When his race engineer Tom Stallard attempted to console him by pointing out that Sainz had caused the crucial time loss, he snapped back: "Oh mate, just don't even ******* talk to me now. Nice of you guys to factor that one in, by the way. Thanks."
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella moved to draw a line under the episode, revealing that Piastri had sought to clarify his comments immediately after climbing out of the car. The Australian ultimately retired from the race with a gearbox failure, adding insult to injury.
"Immediately after the race, Oscar clarified that his comment was a comment made in anger," Stella told media. "It's absolutely understandable that when you lead the race for almost half, and then you see yourself losing the lead because of an episode with a backmarker, then you may have a moment and make a comment in anger, but there's absolutely no problem."
The incident with Sainz, who received a five-second time penalty from the stewards, remained a sore point for Piastri, but he insisted there was no lingering tension with the McLaren pit wall.
Speaking after the race, he was notably more measured, and he acknowledged that the sass aimed at his team was born out of pure frustration in the moment.
"It was fine," the nine-time grand prix winner told media, including RacingNews365. "When they timed my stop, that was to cover Lewis, and that was fine.
"In the moment, I was upset that I lost the lead of the race through no fault of my own, and I felt maybe the team could have not pitted Lando if it was a two-car race.
"But I know it's not a two-car race. I know that Lando's got his own race to try and win, and there are other people, so they can't just not box Lando because of something out of his control and out of my control.
"So that's happened; it's fine. I was just very, very pissed off in the moment about what happened."
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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