Oscar Piastri blasts ’embarrassing’ FIA call after suffering Austrian GP heartbreak

Oscar Piastri, who experienced heartbreak during the Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, has expressed his frustration.

At the Austrian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri criticized the ’embarrassing’ decision to deny him his last flying lap during qualifying. Due to a track limit violation, the young Australian player, who would have started in P7, had his time deleted.

Piastri has been fast all weekend at the Red Bull Ring. He appeared to be going for a P3 starting grid position after finishing in P2 in the sprint race, but a near-collision with gravel at Turn Six prompted the stewards to void his lap time.

Instead, the 23-year-old will start from position seven on the grid, with Sergio Perez being the only driver from the top four teams starting below him. Piastri did not take kindly to this.

Piastri’s ire stemmed from the Red Bull Ring’s significant investment in brand-new gravel traps installed all around the track to address the track limits controversy that resulted in 1200 track limit violations reported to the FIA during the 2023 Austrian GP.

“It’s embarrassing for me,” he said to Sky Sports F1. “I didn’t even venture off the track while we worked on the track limits and placed gravel in certain areas. I continued on my path. I delete what was probably my best Turn Six.

“I don’t understand why, when you still have corners you can use, they’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to change the last two. Anyway, I didn’t keep it in the track; everyone else did. That is the process.

When pressed for more details, the McLaren driver replied, “That was probably the best Turn Six I took.” I believe that everyone wants to see me go all the way to the end of the track.

“Once more, we’ve put in a lot of work trying to solve these issues. As long as you stay on the track, as I did, and avoid the gravel, there’s no reason this corner should violate track limits.

“Well, since I’m the only one who’s experienced that, I’m probably talking about it more now, but I think it’s embarrassing that you see us pushing ourselves to the absolute limit and that if I go another centimeter, I end up in the gravel and ruin my lap completely, and it gets deleted.”