Carlos Sainz’s Boss Accuses Fernando Alonso: He Received Blue Flags but Stayed Ahead of Oscar Piastri

The Hungarian Grand Prix of Formula 1 was defined by a single moment: the contact between Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri as the Australian prepared to overtake the Spaniard, a move that left Lando Norris with the race handed to him on a plate. After the race Sainz downplayed his mistake. Now his boss has taken it a step further.

According to James Vowles, Williams’ team principal, it isn’t that Carlos Sainz is blameless for the contact, but that there is a single culprit: Fernando Alonso. For the Briton, Alonso was the one who should have let Piastri pass, but his maneuver tangled with Sainz and caused the crash that defined the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso overtook Sainz under blue flags

Ignoring blue flags and ending up rubbing shoulders with the race leader is one of the worst things you can do in a Formula 1 race, and that is precisely what happened to Carlos Sainz at the Hungaroring. Yet, to everyone’s surprise, Sainz let it slide with a simple “that’s racing,” without so much as a hint of an apology. Now his boss has sharpened the take.

According to James Vowles, the fault lay with Fernando Alonso. The Asturian driver was fighting with Sainz on track, and the Williams boss believes it was Alonso who should have yielded to Piastri. But rather than doing so, he overtook Sainz, triggering the confusion that ended with the contact between Williams and McLaren.

Vowles stresses that “Fernando received several blue flags throughout the lap, yet still stayed ahead of Oscar.” According to Williams, when the blue flags emerged Alonso was behind Sainz, so the Aston Martin driver should have let him pass earlier, but instead he moved ahead of Sainz.

Vowles argues that “the procedure dictates that it must be done in order, so Fernando should have ceded that position beforehand. What happened was that he didn’t.” So Sainz suddenly found himself with the race leader bearing down behind him, with nowhere to go, according to Williams’ reasoning.

The move was resolved with a five-second penalty that Sainz served in the pits, sending him straight to the last place. Alonso escaped punishment from the stewards despite Williams’ claim that he was responsible for the incident that ruined Piastri’s race. In the footage you can see that indeed Alonso moves past Sainz before the incident.

Be that as it may, the fault of not checking the mirrors and effectively pinning the driver about to lap him cannot, in any case, be Alonso’s responsibility.

Images | Aston Martin, Williams