Toto Wolff: Mercedes team principal hits out at ‘Teletubbies engineers’ amid blue flag system failure at Hungarian GP | F1 News

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has criticized “Teletubbies engineers” as Oscar Piastre branded the backmarker “unacceptable” after contact with Carlos Sainz at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

In the second half of the race, leaders found lapped runners difficult to navigate, and since then a problem with the blue flag system has resulted in actual blue-waved flags and panels being the only way for drivers to know about approaching front runners.

Typically, drivers get a blue signal on their dash to let them know when to lose their lap.

This led to a pivotal moment in the battle for the lead between Piastre and eventual race-winner Lando Norris where the Australian was almost taken out by Sainz at Turn 2 when the Williams driver approached him, not knowing Piastre was there.

“I was right behind him (Sainge) for one sector. I couldn’t believe what had happened,” said Piastre, who later retired with gearbox failure while finishing second.

“Being hit by a lapped car is never one of the things you expect to go wrong in your race, and today it was, so I don’t really care if he didn’t see me. The fact that he didn’t and nobody told him or there was a complete lack of awareness, that’s unacceptable.”

Sainz, who was given a five-second penalty for the collision, felt the system error was a “pretty good excuse” for the collision.

“I had no idea I was going to make the lap, and on top of that, I was in a big fight with Fernando who was trying to cut him in the corner,” he said.

“I didn’t expect Oscar to be there, and even if he was there or I would have expected him to be in my dead spot in the corner, it was honestly impossible for me to avoid it.

“Maybe a little better contact would have helped, but at the same time (it was) a racing thing.”

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff also criticized the backmarkers as it affected the battle for the podium between Kimi Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton as the pair chased Max Verstappen.

Wolf said Sky Sports F1: “The marshalling system is not working and the cars at the back are protecting Lewis and Kimi in the fight. It’s a shame for some Teletubby engineers who sit on the pit wall of this team and don’t tell their drivers what’s going on behind them.”

Piastri: Sainz should look in the mirror

Piastre’s contact with Norris cost him time and led his teammate into a second-round pit stop, adding to his frustration.

Sainz felt Piastri “could have been a little more cautious” as he was fighting for the win, but Piastri disagreed with the comment.

“He’s pretty critical of others, and others have given him some stick before for being frustrating on-track,” Piastre said.

“When you go and do something like that, maybe you should look in the mirror a little bit.”

The McLaren driver added: “If I hadn’t crashed, I would still have been ahead of Landau. So I was good in terms of things.

“At this point I was incredibly annoyed – I wouldn’t actually use the word annoyed, there’s a crowd I would – with Carlos. Then obviously when Lando came forward, I knew I had no speed to go and attack him.

“I knew my chances of winning the race were done from there. So, yes, I could have lost the race lead ****, but it wasn’t the team’s fault, it was Carlos’ fault.”

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella took a more measured view of the incident but admitted it cost Piastre time.

“We know Carlos. He is a fair driver, correct. So, if this happened, it means something is not working properly,” he said. Sky Sports F1.

“I realized the blue panels were probably the problem. After that we just told our drivers to be super, super careful because, for some reason, the backmarkers seemed to be struggling more than usual.”

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