Oscar Piastri Slams Carlos Sainz After 2026 Hungarian F1 Clash

Oscar Piastri strongly criticised Carlos Sainz after their collision at the 2026 Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix damaged his chances of retaining the lead.

Piastri controlled the opening phase of the race and remained in contention for victory when the incident occurred. After completing a pit stop, the McLaren driver closed onto Sainz to put the Williams a lap down.

Contact occurred as Piastri attempted to pass Sainz. The incident cost him several crucial seconds to team-mate Lando Norris, who had not yet made his second pit stop.

Baca JugaLando Norris Akhiri Puasa McLaren, Oscar Piastri Murka

Norris subsequently stopped and returned to the circuit in the net lead. The position change became a decisive moment because Piastri had previously retained the track-position advantage in McLaren’s internal battle.

“For me, there is no excuse at all. That has got to be one of the dumbest things I have ever seen on a race track,” Piastri said.

“I do not really care what excuse you give,” he added.

Piastri had already expressed his anger over the team radio immediately after the contact. Following the race, he continued to argue that Sainz’s actions could not be justified, despite the Williams driver blaming a blue-flag system failure for not recognising Piastri’s presence.

Piastri’s difficulties did not end with the collision. A gearbox failure later forced him to stop at the side of the circuit and ended his race while he remained in podium contention.

Lando Norris ultimately secured McLaren’s first victory of the 2026 season. Piastri believed he also had a strong chance of winning if he had been able to retain track position through the closing phase.

“It is definitely a lost chance. The pace was not great at all on the hard tyres, but as long as I held track position, I felt like I had a decent chance of hanging on until the end,” Piastri said.

Piastri acknowledged that the victory would not have been straightforward because his pace on the hard compound was weaker than expected. However, the difficulty of overtaking at the Hungaroring gave him confidence that the lead could still be defended.

“It was not going to be pretty, but I felt like it was possible. From that point onwards, almost everything that could have gone wrong, including things you never think about, did go wrong,” he concluded.