'Most Awkward Cooldown Room' Was With Hamilton And Russell Says Piastri

Monday, 14 October 2024 at 14:00

Oscar Piastri explained why the cooldown room with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell after the Belgian Grand Prix was the most awkward in his career.

The Belgian Grand Prix had one of the closest race finishes in the 2024 season. Mercedes's George Russell crossed the finish line first, followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton +0,526 seconds behind and Oscar Piastri 0,65 seconds behind.

Scoring third place meant that the McLaren driver went to the cooldown room and was on the podium with his Mercedes rivals for the ceremony after the race. However, the cooldown room wasn't very enjoyable, as he told 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 [Hamilton] finished second."

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So far in his career, Oscar Piastri has attended nine cooldown rooms and scored nine podiums (two of which were victories) in his two seasons in Formula One.

Part of the reason it was a bit awkward in the cooldown room was perhaps that Lewis Hamilton drove an incredible race and felt like he should have crossed the finish line first, and yet he didn't.

Mercedes team told the 39-year-old to box for a two-stop strategy, but Russell didn't do that. He went for a one-stop, which turned out to be a better strategy, giving him an advantage over the seven-time Champion.

Drivers didn't know it yet when they were in the cooldown room, but Russell would even get disqualified later for his car being below the minimum weight limit. Piastri added:

"I finished third on the road, and then, of course, George got disqualified. It was tense."

"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!"