Oscar Piastri speaks out strongly about Carlos Sainz after hearing a ‘silly’ reason for their crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri shared how frustrated he felt after a crash with Carlos Sainz interrupted his strong run at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Piastri was leading after his second pit stop but lost valuable time when he got stuck behind Sainz while trying to lap him.
Sainz received a five-second penalty for the incident, even though officials said Piastri was in Sainz’s blind spot. Sainz said the problem came from the system that alerts drivers when they’re about to be lapped not working properly. He explained after the race that he was busy racing with Fernando Alonso and didn’t realize where Piastri was.
“We didn’t have blue lights on the steering wheel, which usually help drivers know if they’re about to be lapped when fighting for position,” Sainz told F1.
Piastri wasn’t having it. He told Viaplay, “That’s no excuse. Honestly, that’s one of the silliest things I’ve ever seen on the track. I don’t care about his excuse.”
Piastri’s teammate, Lando Norris, pit-stop went better. He came out ahead of Piastri and went on to win the race, his first win of the 2026 season. Unfortunately, things got worse for Piastri. Though he bumped ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli, his gearbox broke on lap 56, forcing him to retire.
Norris is now fifth in the championship, 19 points ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was second on the podium behind Norris and in front of Antonelli.
Sainz’s view of the crash was very different from Piastri’s. “I couldn’t believe it. Getting hit by a lapped car is something you never expect, and it happened today. I don’t care if he didn’t see me,” Piastri said after the race. “If he didn’t see me, and no one told him, that’s just not acceptable.”
Usually, the blue flags and lights warn drivers that they’re about to be lapped, so they can let the faster cars go without causing problems. After the race, it came out that the blue light system wasn’t fully working. But the angry McLaren driver thinks Sainz could have done more to avoid the crash and had some sharp words after hearing Sainz’s explanation.
“I saw the blue flags and marshal signals all around,” Piastri said. “Sainz can be critical of others, and some people have called him frustrating on the track. When you cause something like this, maybe you should take a look at yourself.
At the time, I wasn’t just annoyed – there are better words to describe how I felt. After that crash, I knew my chances of winning were gone.”