Oscar Piastri loses his cool with a sharp team radio message in a tough finish to the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri really lost his cool on the McLaren team radio after a tricky moment that might have cost him the Hungarian Grand Prix.
On Sunday afternoon, the F1 season rolled on at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród, Hungary, with the 11th race of the year. With the summer break coming right after, all the drivers were feeling the pressure to perform well, especially since talks about who will have seats for 2027 are heating up.
After a strong qualifying on Saturday, it was the defending champ Lando Norris who started on pole, ahead of fellow Brit Lewis Hamilton and Piastri, his McLaren teammate.
During the race, it became clear that the fight for first place was between Norris and Piastri. The Australian took the lead and seemed ready to hold it till the end. But things took a turn when, after changing to hard tires, Piastri got stuck behind two slower cars and eventually bumped into Williams’ Carlos Sainz.
He wasn’t happy about that and instantly let out his frustration on the team radio: “Get out of the f***ing way you idiot! Oh my God.”
This trouble caused Piastri to lose his lead to Norris, who had pitted and came out ahead. Norris built a big gap after that.
Piastri’s race engineer, Tom Stollard, later said, “Oscar, that’s Sainz that’s cost us that.” Piastri snapped back, “Oh mate, just don’t f***ing talk to me now,” before joking, “Nice of you guys to factor that in by the way, thanks.”
Sainz did get a five-second penalty for the contact, but since he was battling for 19th place with his teammate, it didn’t make much difference.
To make matters worse, Piastri then had a gearbox problem, forcing him to slow down and retire on lap 56.
This Hungarian Grand Prix is definitely one Piastri will want to forget. It was a tough weekend in an already difficult season for the Australian, who’s currently seventh in the World Constructors Championship.
Looking back, Piastri said he enjoyed overtaking Norris early in the race but that was about the only good part. “That was definitely the highlight, but after that, it all went downhill,” he said. “The hard tires didn’t work well, then getting taken out by a backmarker was a surprise, and later the gearbox problem. Not the best day.”
About the crash with Sainz, he added, “I got hit by Carlos, and at the time, I hoped maybe they wouldn’t pit Lando because of the incident to give me a chance to stay in front, but I guess that wasn’t realistic. I was just really upset then. The pit stop timing was fine—we needed it to beat Lewis.”
Piastri will now have to wait until the Dutch Grand Prix on August 23 to try and turn things around after a tough weekend in Hungary.