Piastri blasts team after Norris battle: ‘Find a way to f**k me’

Oscar Piastri was overheard letting rip on team radio during a white knuckle Grand Prix in Austria that also saw Max Verstappen crash out.

Oscar Piastri was overheard swearing about his former F1 team Alpine as his attempts to chase down teammate Lando Norris were thwarted in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris set himself up for an emotional homecoming at next weekend’s British Grand Prix when he resisted race-long pressure from Piastri to win Sunday night’s race.

Piastri, who left Alpine three years ago, was held up by both of the team’s drivers, Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly.

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Colapinto ran him off the track at high speed on lap 55 - an infringement glaring enough to earn the Argentine a five-second penalty.

Two laps later Gasly took his turn, blocking Piastri in turn one as he attempted to lap.

“Alpine still manages to find a way to f**k me over all these years later,” Piastri was heard saying on team radio.

Piastri was famously involved in a messy contract dispute with his former team before the FIA ruled he had a valid contract with McLaren despite Alpine announcing Piastri as Fernando Alonso’s replacement.

But while it was mostly all smiles in the McLaren garage, Max Verstappen endured a dismal day, with the Red Bull four-time champion crashing out on the first lap, and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda trailing in last.

For Norris this was the 25-year-old Briton’s first triumph on Red Bull’s home tarmac to trim Piastri’s lead in the title race to 15 points ahead of his and team’s home event at Silverstone.

“It was a perfect result for the team — a one-two is exactly what we want and we did it again,” he said.

His happiness came also from achieving closure on their collision at the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks earlier when he hit Piastri and retired pointless, admitting he had “made a fool of myself”.

This time, their thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle was completed without any rancour or tears - between them at least - and was a show of its own following Verstappen’s exit after his Red Bull was taken out when teenage rookie Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes locked up and hit him.

“We had a great battle, that’s for sure,” said Norris.

“It was a lot of fun and stress. A nice battle, so well done to Oscar! Hopefully, it was a nice one for everyone to watch.”

Pistri on several occasions nibbled away at Norris’ rear wing during their first stint and even briefly took the lead on Lap 11 before Norris took his position back a few corners later.

There was very nearly contact between them on Lap 20 when Piastri took a deep lunge into Turn 4 and needed to lock up his brakes while coming dangerously close to running into the other McLaren.

Piastri was reprimanded by his team a few laps later.

The Melburnian apologised during the cool down lap.

“Sorry for the move in Turn 4. My bad.”

The speed of the McLarens and their ability to limit tyre degradation was the envy of the pit lane.

Oscar Piastri almost bashed into his teammate. Photo: Sky Sports.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner was blunt in sharing his thoughts on Piastri’s ability to protest his tyres despite being within DRS of Norris.

“What’s really impressive is the way they can keep following each other without the tires giving out,” Horner said.

“Oscar was practically making love to the exhaust of Lando’s car, and his tyres stayed protected.”

Norris was four seconds clear of his teammate when they went in for their final pit stops on Lap 53 and Lap 54.

Despite putting in the fastest lap of the race in the final stint, Piastri was unable to seriously threaten Norris in the closing laps.

It didn’t hep that he lost significant time when pushed onto the grass by a clueless Colapinto.

Sky Sports F1 analyst Karun Chandhok said Colapinto’s bizarre decision to move across Piastri as he was being lapped was “unacceptable”.

Party time. Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images.

The British driver’s win enabled the runaway leaders McLaren to move to 417 points and a lead of 207 ahead of Ferrari, for whom Charles Leclerc came home third and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton fourth, their best result this year.

Piastri admitted he did his utmost to catch and pass Norris after passing Leclerc on the opening lap from third on the grid.

“I probably pushed the limit a bit far, but it was a good race and that’s what we were here to do - to race each other and try and fight for wins. That’s what we did today.

“It was close for me, but not quite enough. Thanks to the team. To have the kind of pace we did while battling each other, it was very impressive. I can’t thank this team enough for the car we’ve got.”

Verstappen meanwhile is now 61 points adrift of Piastri in the drivers’ title race amid mounting speculation about his future with Red Bull.

“It was just unlucky, like yesterday in qualifying,” said Verstappen. “But overall we did not have great pace here and we have a lot of learnings, and must find how to do better next weekend. It is not an ideal result.”

It was the first time in 32 races that Verstappen had failed to finish in the points.

“We will keep trying to do our best, as always, and my mentality will never change. We have won a lot in the past and sometimes we have these times like this.” He accepted Antonelli’s apology instantly and with good grace.

The 18-year-old Italian, hit with a three-grid penalty at Silverstone, said: “I didn’t necessarily brake too late, it’s just that when I braked hard behind other cars, I locked the rears.

“I feel super sorry to the team and to Max, of course, because obviously he was just a passenger.” Lawson was all smiles after achieving the best result of his career in sixth in Red Bull’s sister team RB.

“It has been a tough time for me, but we have worked hard and it has been rewarded today so I’m very happy,” added Lawson, who was dumped by Red Bull after just two races this season.

- with AFP

Originally published as Piastri blasts team after Norris battle: ‘Find a way to f**k me’