Mercedes crew principal Toto Wolff has criticised “Teletubbies engineers” as Oscar Piastri labelled backmarkers “unacceptable” after he made contact with Carlos Sainz on the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Within the second half of the race, the leaders discovered it difficult to navigate lapped runners and it has since emerged there was an issue with the blue flag system which led to bodily blue-waved flags and panels being the one method drivers knew about upcoming front-runners.
Usually, the drivers get a blue sign on their sprint to point when they should transfer over when about to lose a lap.
It led to a key second within the lead battle between Piastri and eventual race-winner Lando Norris the place the Australian was practically taken out by Sainz at Flip 2 when the Williams driver got here throughout him, unaware Piastri was there.
“I used to be proper behind him [Sainz] for a sector. I could not imagine what occurred,” mentioned Piastri, who later retired resulting from gearbox failure when working in second.
“Getting crashed into by a lapped automobile isn’t one of many belongings you count on that may go fallacious in your race, and right this moment it was, so I do not actually care if he did not see me. The truth that he did not and nobody instructed him, or there was a scarcity of full consciousness, is unacceptable.”
Sainz, who was given a five-second time penalty for the collision, thinks the programs fault was a “fairly good excuse” for the collision.
“I had no concept I used to be about to get lapped, and on high of that, I used to be in an enormous combat with Fernando making an attempt to undercut him into the nook,” he mentioned.
“I would not have anticipated Oscar to be there, and even when he was there or I might have anticipated he was on my useless spot on the angle, so it was unimaginable actually from my facet to keep away from it.
“In all probability a bit higher communication would have helped, however on the identical time [it was] a racing factor.”
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Oscar Piastri has a gearbox failure and retires from the Hungarian GP
Mercedes crew principal Toto Wolff was additionally important of the backmarkers because it impacted the battle for the rostrum between Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton when the pair had been chasing down Max Verstappen.
Wolff instructed Sky Sports activities F1: “The marshalling system not functioning and vehicles on the again defending within the Lewis and Kimi combat. It is disgraceful from a few of the Teletubbies engineers that sit on the pit partitions of those groups not telling their drivers what’s taking place behind.”
Piastri: Sainz ought to look within the mirror
Piastri’s contact with Norris price him time and the result in his team-mate on the second spherical of pit stops which solely heightened his frustration.
Sainz thinks Piastri “might even have been a bit extra cautious” given he was preventing for the win, however Piastri disagreed with the feedback.
“He is fairly important of others, and others have given him some stick earlier than for being irritating on-track,” mentioned Piastri.
“Whenever you go and do one thing like that, possibly it is best to look within the mirror a bit.”
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Oscar Piastri reacts to his disastrous day on the Hungarian GP as he was compelled to retire when working in second resulting from gearbox problem
The McLaren driver added: “With out getting crashed into, I might have been forward of Lando nonetheless. So from that facet of issues I used to be advantageous.
“Within the second I used to be extremely irritated – in actual fact irritated isn’t the phrase I might use, there is a multitude that I might – with Carlos. Then clearly when Lando got here out forward, I knew I had no tempo to go and assault him.
“I knew my possibilities of profitable the race had been achieved from there. So within the second, yeah, I used to be p**** off that I would misplaced the lead of the race, however that wasn’t the fault of the crew, it was Carlos’ fault.”
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Watch the second that Lando Norris claims victory on the Hungarian Grand Prix!
McLaren crew principal Andrea Stella took a extra measured view of the incident however admitted it price Piastri time.
“We all know Carlos. He is such a good driver, right. So, if that is taking place it means one thing wasn’t working appropriately,” he instructed Sky Sports activities F1.
“I perceive that the blue panels possibly had been the issue. After that we instructed our drivers to be simply tremendous, tremendous cautious as a result of, for some cause, the backmarkers appeared to be struggling greater than regular.”
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