Oscar Piastri has revealed how the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton turned out to be his “most awkward” cooldown room encounter in Formula 1 to date.
Piastri has utilised McLaren’s emergence as a title-contending team this term to add seven podiums to the two top-three results that he achieved in his rookie season.
But while that moment prior to the podium hands the drivers a chance to talk through their races, Piastri has recalled how that wasn’t the case at Spa-Francorchamps.
Asked to name the cooldown experience which was the most uncomfortable, Piastri told the UK’s Cosmopolitan: “The most awkward cooldown room…
“I mean, I’ve not been in that many, but the most awkward one was after Spa, where George [Russell] won and Lewis finished second.”
Piastri concluded the last race before the summer break third on the road behind the two Mercedes drivers, with less than two seconds covering the top three drivers.
But despite Mercedes recording a first 1-2 since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton was agitated as his one-stopping team-mate pipped him to the race victory.
Hamilton had controlled proceedings since seizing the lead in the nascent stages and was on track to win until George Russell went to the end with one less pit stop.
However, Russell would then be disqualified as his Mercedes W15 was discovered to be underweight, promoting Hamilton back up to first place and Piastri to second.
Nonetheless, as that outcome landed several hours later, the traditional post-race setting would be a muted affair as the seven-time F1 champion pondered a lost win.
“I finished third on the road, and then, of course, George got disqualified. It was tense,” Piastri recounted.
“Lewis drove a great race. In a lot of circumstances, he should have won that race pretty comfortably, so I understood exactly how he was feeling at that point.
“I could very much sense that Lewis did not want to be… he wasn’t in a chatty mood, so I just watched and looked at the highlights in silence and kept to myself!”
Maintaining friendships in F1 is hard
The Australian, who has taken two victories this season, has admitted that it’s hard to maintain friendships in the sport due to the intense competition that is involved.
“Having relationships with your fellow colleagues on track is an interesting one, of course,” he explained.
“Because you are in a very unique situation where there are basically 20 people in the world who know what you’re experiencing and know what your life is like, basically.
“But, also, they’re your direct competition. So it’s an interesting mix.
“I would say I think we all have a lot of respect for each other on the grid, because we know how hard it is to get to F1.
“We know what a lot of us have given up to get there, and the sacrifices along the way.
“There are some people you just naturally get on better than others but, at the end of the day, you are all there to try and beat each other. So it’s a very, very interesting mix.
“I think having true friends on the grid is pretty difficult because you are trying to beat each other.
“I think a lot of us probably have friends with racing drivers that we’re not actually racing against anymore. It’s a fine balance.”
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