Untelevised team radio footage from the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia has revealed the moment Oscar Piastri accused Alex Albon of “brake-checking” in the heat of the moment.
It comes after the FIA took no further action against Albon, with Piastri accepting the Williams driver’s explanation that he slowed dramatically in order to meet the delta time on his steering wheel under virtual safety car conditions.
Oscar Piastri team radio emerges as FIA takes no further action against Alex Albon
Piastri was also heard branding Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso “the master of chaos” after the two-time world champion took advantage of unpredictable conditions to finish eighth at Sepang.
As reported by PlanetF1.com on Monday, Piastri and Albon were summoned to the stewards after Sunday’s race in Malaysia following an incident in the pit lane.
Albon slowed suddenly as he reached the pit entry road, forcing Piastri to brake and take avoiding action.
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Piastri was heard claiming over team radio that he “got brake-checked by Albon massively” in the heat of the moment.
However, the FIA stewards later clarified that Piastri “considered the reasons for Albon’s actions understandable” during the post-race hearing.
The exchange between Piastri and his race engineer, Tom Stallard, in the immediate aftermath of the incident went as follows:
Piastri: “Can I overtake on pit entry? Can I overtake on pit entry?”
Stallard: “Yeah.”
Piastri: “Got brake-checked by Albon massively.”
Stallard: “Copy, we’ll look at it.”
Albon told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the race that he “had to brake” at pit entry to avoid breaching the minimum delta time, admitting he was “barely legal crossing the line.”
A failure to meet his delta time would have left Albon at risk of a penalty.
Following the chequered flag, Stallard informed his driver of the finishing order, with Piastri left amazed by Alonso’s feat in securing a rare points finish for Aston Martin.
Stallard: “So the finishing order was: Verstappen, Antonelli, Hamilton, Leclerc, Hadjar, yourself, Lawson, Alonso, Lando, Lindblad. You heard that right: Alonso P8.”
Piastri: “Wow. Always the master of chaos.”
Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the race, Piastri quipped that he finished sixth, the same position he started despite the unpredictable nature of the race.
He said: “It was a hell of a lot to finish in the same place I started! That’s for sure.
“I had a bit of everything, so never seen an F1 race start delayed by a bug. That was a new one.
“It was very, very tricky out there. Obviously, the wet conditions were tough. We took a bit of a gamble on the slick and I knew coming out of the pits it wasn’t the right call, so I boxed.
“And I think the safety car coming out kind of neutralised everyone, so it didn’t cost us too much. We just ultimately weren’t that competitive.
“It was a shame for the last safety car because I was catching Leclerc very quickly, so I think I could have got him, but we just didn’t quite have the pace today.”
Asked if the phase when he was catching Leclerc was the only time all weekend that he felt quick, he replied: “Pretty much. We weren’t too flash anywhere else.
“The first stint, I was struggling a lot. I think in those very tricky conditions, it was very hard to see actually if the track was dry or not.
“I think just with how you have to drive our car, you need to have a lot of confidence and in those kind of conditions, having confidence is almost impossible.
“So I think that exposed a bit of our struggle, definitely for me, anyway. But I think once I put the next set of hards on, we seemed pretty good.
“So that’s definitely the biggest learning. But at the moment, we’re too up and down and the window we have is too small.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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