Piastri and Sainz Shared a ‘Couple of Messages’ After Heated Hungarian Grand Prix Clash

Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz shared a ‘couple of messages’ in the aftermath of the F1 Hungarian GP, even though the Spaniard said he didn’t need to talk.

It was heated post-race in Hungary when a usually quiet McLaren’s Piastri was agitated by the antics of Williams’ Sainz. The Australian was battling for a F1 race win when he encountered the Spaniard, who was battling for track position against Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso – outside the points.

Run-in between Piastri and Sainz in Hungary

With the blue flag system not working properly for the entirety of the grand prix, Sainz got caught up and in his defence, he pushed Piastri onto the grass. The Australian was naturally disappointed, as he felt that moment cost him the win in F1 Hungarian GP – that was snapped up by teammate Lando Norris.

Even though Piastri took the lead at race start, Norris had the pace to win it. That moment coupled with the strategy got the better for the Brit over his McLaren F1 teammate. Post-race, the Australian was not happy with what Sainz did, but the Spaniard showed no remorse.

Piastri and Sainz texted

While he was sorry for the situation, he defended himself and noted that there is nothing to talk. The two, however, have shared a couple of messages since as Piastri noted. “We had a couple of messages, yes,” the Australian summed up in one line to media in F1 Dutch GP.

When asked if he bring it up in the drivers’ briefing, Piastri felt it was a rare issue that the blue flag system failed. He doesn’t thinks the system needs to change, but agreed that there needs to be attention on how to handle things in case of failure like Hungary.

Nothing to change on blue flag system as per Piastri

“I think in Hungary the fact that the system wasn’t working properly was obviously not ideal,” continued Piastri. “But at the end of the day the teams and the drivers have a responsibility to make sure that they’re following the rules.

“So I think we’re probably the only series in the world that has that blue flag system, every other series, some series have different rules about blue flags. But I don’t think that necessarily needs to change. I think it’s just when that system doesn’t work, obviously there needs to be more attention on blue flags.”

His lost win was Norris’ gain. But the performances of the Top 4 teams have been up and down so far in the first half of F1 2026. Mercedes clearly seems like the benchmark, but it has had its share of drops, allowing the likes of Ferrari and or McLaren to capatilise.

Piastri feels the positions keeps changing due to the development race. At times when Ferrari should do well, it fails to deliver, while it pops up when not expected. The Australian sees things to be at random so far in F1 2026, with the circuit characteristics also playing a role.

Development race means no order is particular apart from Mercedes benchmark

“I think it’s also changing because everyone’s changing their cars so much,” said Piastri. “Everyone’s bringing a lot of upgrades, so I think that’s probably changing the picture quite a lot. I think for us, our pace in Hungary was a bit unexpected, also Mercedes is clearly the benchmark everywhere we go at the moment.

“I think we’re sometimes surprised that Ferrari are quicker or slower at some tracks because at some of the tracks we expect them to be incredibly quick, but maybe not being quite as competitive. Then there are others where we don’t necessarily think they’ll be the class of the field. They have been the class of the field, so it’s a little bit random for us as well.

“I think everyone’s learning so much still with both the engines, the cars and bringing new bits to the cars that it’s probably not that surprising that things jump and change. Also, every circuit now is pretty different to one another.

“There’s not really that many circuits that have very similar characteristics to each other. Here [Zandvoort] it’s similar to Budapest in some ways in terms of the corner speeds, but the track surface, the camber of the corners, the weather conditions are all completely different. I think that just jumps and changes a lot,” summed up Piastri.