Williams team principal James Vowles does not place the responsibility for the collision between Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri during the Hungarian GP solely on his own Williams driver. The Spaniard did not see the approaching race leader at the moment Piastri wanted to lap him. Subsequently, the two collided. According to Vowles, this was also partly due to Fernando Alonso, who was battling Sainz at that time: ‘Fernando should have moved aside for Oscar earlier,’ says the Williams team principal.
Oscar Piastri was leading the race at the Hungaroring when he encountered backmarker Carlos Sainz on the track. The Williams driver received blue flags – a signal that he had to let Piastri pass – but did not see them and then came into contact with the Australian’s McLaren car. To Piastri’s great anger, who thus saw his lead over teammate Lando Norris disappear.
It later turned out that a system failure occurred during the Hungarian GP, causing several drivers not to receive the blue signals on their steering wheels when they were being lapped. “At one point, we were basically only working with marshals doing their best,” Williams team principal James Vowles explains about the system failure, in a video for Williams. “But waving blue flags is very difficult for marshals: they don’t know when the cars are coming. What was then devised was to use flashing blue lights, but without indicating for which driver they were intended.”
Vowles also points to Alonso
According to the Williams team principal, this ambiguity was not the only cause of the incident between Sainz and Piastri. The Brit then also points to Fernando Alonso, who was battling Sainz at that time. “Fernando had been getting several blue lights all along but kept racing in front of Oscar,” says Vowles. “You have to do it in the right order, so Fernando should have moved aside for Oscar earlier. But he didn’t.”
Because a battle broke out between Sainz and Alonso, it was unclear to Williams when exactly the Spaniard had to move aside for the approaching Piastri. “What we did do was let Carlos know in turn one that Oscar was coming,” Vowles adds. “What we should have done – because in the end we are still racing for a position outside the points – is point that out to Carlos at the moment he was alongside Fernando on the approach to turn two. But it was not an attempt to block Oscar or anything like that.”
Read everything here about the Dutch GP in Zandvoort
