The Cool-down room in Formula 1 is where all podium finishers will end up after going through adrenaline-rushing intense race battles. There are many instances when the podium sitters talk about the races and even argue with each other about the moments during the race.
One cool-down room incident has become the most awkward moment of Oscar Piastri’s life and that too with the 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. The young Australian became a sensation after scoring back-to-back podiums and race wins in the 2024 season for McLaren.
The Australian was seen as a potential future world champion by many F1 experts. Oscar Piastri impressed everyone with his great skills in very tough street circuits like Azerbaijan and Singapore. He recently spoke about the most awkward moment in his Formula 1 career. The moment was between Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton after this year's Belgium GP.
Max Verstappen was the pole sitter in qualifying but he received a ten-place grid penalty for engine change. Charles Leclerc started as the pole sitter. Mercedes George Russell started in fifth and jumped to first after opting for a one-stop Pit strategy while Lewis Hamilton opted for a 2 stop pit strategy and ended in second place.
Oscar Piastri finished third on the podium and all three are in the cool-down room. Lewis Hamilton was not happy with the Strategy he was given by his team so he was angry and quiet and didn't utter a word to anyone in the cool-down room.
The Australian who had his podium wanted to speak with Lewis, but his silence forced him to sit quietly in the room which he felt was very awkward. Later George was disqualified as stewards found his car underweight and they gave Lewis Hamilton his 105th career win with Oscar moving to second and Leclerc in third.
The most awkward moment of the Oscar
Talking about the incident Oscar Piastri says “The most awkward cooldown room…I mean, I’ve not been in that many, but the most awkward one was after Spa, where George won and Lewis finished second. I finished third on the road, and then, of course, George got disqualified. It was tense.”
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He continued "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.” Oscar Piastri will next race in United States GP which starts this week and he will be helping his teammate Lando Norris to clinch his first Formula 1 title against Red Bulls Max Verstappen.
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