'Teletubbies and morons' - Inside F1's Hungarian GP blue flag 'nightmare'

Toto Wolff laid the blame on "Teletubby" engineers not providing their drivers enough information in a timely manner, whilst Max Verstappen was less succinct. 

As the Red Bull driver came through backmarker traffic, in name, if not in practice, as the duelling Racing Bulls were actually fighting in the points, he labelled them as "morons" for not getting out of the way. 

In the biggest incident of the race that led to Wolff's Teletubbies comparison, Carlos Sainz cut across the bow of Oscar Piastri at Turn 2 whilst squabbling with Fernando Alonso over last place as Piastri was engaged in a strategic duel with Lando Norris for the lead.

Piastri had pitted for the second time on Lap 33, and by Lap 38 was nip and tuck with Norris, who was extending his stint in clear air to try and overcut the sister McLaren. As Piastri rounded Turn 2, Sainz squeezed him, with the McLaren nearly spinning out - and then being stuck behind the Williams up to Turn 6, with the normally unflappable Australian exclaiming over the radio: "Get out of the f***ing way, you idiot."

Post-race, Sainz revealed that a blue flag system glitch was to blame for him not being aware of Piastri's presence - something Piastri gave short shrift, as it called it "one of the dumbest things I've ever seen on a race-track" and told Sainz to "look in the mirror" over the "unacceptable" incident.

However, Piastri and Sainz was not the only case of strange blue flags in Hungary, with Oliver Bearman incurring a rare penalty.

The article continues below. 

Bearman's nightmare

Under the rules covering blue flags, drivers must get out of the way after they have passed three light panels. Any more than that, and they run the risk of a penalty.

To aid them, on the light panels, their race number is shown flashing, and a blue light also flashes on the steering wheel.

However, in Hungary, the system failed. Drivers were shown blue light panels, but crucially, not with their race number - in Sainz's case #55. So as Piastri approached, the light panels only showed a blue flashing light to the Williams and Aston Martin of Alonso, and not the #55 or #14 of their respective race numbers.

Sainz received a five-second penalty for causing a collision, but Haas's Bearman received a five-second sanction for ignoring blue flags against Red Bull's Isack Hadjar - but it was a tricky tightrope to walk. 

"I feel bad about the blue flag penalty with Hadjar because honestly, it was a bit of a nightmare out there," Bearman explained to media, including RacingNews365.

"You go through the infield, and you don't have time to check in the mirrors, and basically, every lap I did, I had blue flag screens coming up, but for this race they weren't working properly, so it was tough to know if it was you or the car behind or the car ahead or whatever getting the blue flag. 

"So obviously, it wasn't malicious. I'm a lap down. I'm not trying to do anything bad, but obviously I feel bad for anyone's race that I may have compromised.

"At the start of the race, I was getting blue flags after six laps, and I thought: 'Wow, that's strange, we're not that slow to be lapped in six laps.'

"So, as I said, from Lap 6 until Lap 70, there were blue flags every single lap, so it was really tough to know what was real, what was fake, what was for me, what wasn't, because normally you have your number [displayed in the blue flag on the light panels].

"This time it was just blue, so like I said, it was nothing malicious. I had to really rely on the team to help me through those blue flags."

The article continues below. 

Verstappen's morons

Another driver caught up in the trouble was Racing Bulls' Lindblad, who was busy trying to edge out team-mate Liam Lawson, just as Verstappen came up to lap them. 

For the rookie, who finished in 10th for a sixth consecutive points haul, he explained how he knew early on there was a problem with the system. 

"For me, it was not too difficult because we have the virtual mirror, so we know the car in front and behind, and we can see the gaps, and we have mirrors, which makes it a bit easier," Lindblad added.

"I think it's more for the cars that were coming through, but it wasn't ideal. I remember at one point I was coming around on Lap 7, and saw blue flags for [Sergio Perez], and he can't be that far back, so I didn't really know what was going on with the system. 

"They never showed the numbers. They just showed a blue flag, which was obviously not the most useful message, but the team helped me out, and I was looking at my delta on the dash to try to get out of the way and not disturb the leader's race."