Vowles: Alonso should have let Piastri through earlier.

      Williams team principal James Vowles believes that Fernando Alonso's actions during the race in Hungary partly provoked the collision between Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri when the Australian was overtaking the Spanish driver a lap down. According to Vowles, Alonso did not yield to Oscar in time and instead overtook Sainz, even though Piastri was already behind them at that moment. As a result, a battle for position ensued between the two Spanish drivers, during which Carlos did not see the McLaren driver and collided with him. Vowles also added that a failure in the blue flag system contributed to the collision.

      James Vowles: "We need to be prepared for the fact that FIA systems sometimes fail. It's inevitable, so it's important to have a more reliable backup mechanism. When the leader approaches a car, the driver receives a warning. We additionally duplicate it with a voice message over the radio. For example, if the leader is 1.6 seconds behind and quickly closing the gap, we receive a notification in advance and can plan exactly where to let him through. Accurate GPS data is necessary for this system to work. The next stage occurs when the leader is 1.2 seconds behind – at this moment, the blue flag mode is automatically activated, and we know that there will be several marshal posts ahead where the driver needs to yield.

      In Hungary, the blue flag system simply failed. At one point, it came down to the marshals manually waving blue flags. But this is a very challenging task, as they cannot know exactly when the cars are approaching. Then they tried to use blue light panels, but without indicating which driver the signal was directed at. Fernando saw the blue flags the whole time but continued to stay ahead of Oscar. Cars need to be yielded in order, so it was Fernando who should have given up his position earlier, but that did not happen.

      Fernando attacked on the inside line at the first corner. After that, Carlos found himself behind, and in such a situation, it was his responsibility to let the leader through at one of the next marshal posts. However, on the run to the second corner, Carlos was again ahead, and Fernando, who was the one the light signals were directed at, was behind. In the next corner, Fernando again attacked Carlos on the inside line, causing Carlos to fall behind once more. The footage clearly shows that at the moment Carlos was returning to the racing line, Oscar went for the attack.

      Without the automatic system, lapped cars remained in their positions longer than they should have. Additionally, it was necessary to understand exactly which car was behind at any given moment. We warned Carlos before the first corner that Oscar was approaching. But we should have done it again at the moment when he was level with Fernando on the way to the second corner. That’s why part of the responsibility lies with us as well. At the same time, no one was trying to deliberately hold up Oscar or hinder him. At that moment, another car was behind, and it was likely that it should have yielded the track before Carlos."