'Piastri clash shows Sainz is "frustrated and miserable" with his Williams situation'

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After the Hungarian GP, Sainz insisted that an issue with the system regarding when blue flags were shown heavily contributed to his collision with Piastri. Sainz's argument was not helped though by the fact that his onboard footage showed that he drove past eight trackside panels displaying blue flag warnings to the Spaniard. The Williams driver also argued that Piastri was in his blind spot when they collided and that the Australian should have been more cautious when trying to lap him.

Ben Hunt, GPblog's lead columnist, said there was "no excuse" for Sainz to ignore the trackside light panels. He also described Sainz's explanation and lack of apology after the collision was "un-character like" and exposed his frustration at where he stands with Williams in 2026.

He said: "The fact that he hasn't come out and put his hands up and just said, "You know, sorry, didn't mean to do that," is most un-character like of him and I think that this is really the frustration of where he's at, at the moment.

GPblog columnist Hunt added that Sainz is "out of sorts" and that he wants to be fighting for wins in his peak years, after taking four victories during his time at Ferrari. Williams are not in the contention for podiums in 2026 and the Spaniard only has six points from 11 races.

Hunt said the situation reminds him of Lewis Hamilton in 2025, after the Brit also looked out of sorts and was lacking confidence in his first season at Ferrari.