The McLaren driver won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah on Sunday and went to the top of the Drivers’ standings.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri said an F1 driver has ‘lost his flight home’ when speaking in the cooldown room alongside Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.
Piastri, 24, pipped Verstappen, 27, who started as pole, to secure a victory and to go top of the Drivers’ standings in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Shortly after the race, the three drivers – Piastri, Verstappen and Leclerc – who made the podium, sat in the cooldown room and watched various highlights of the race before Piastri joked that another driver “might not have a flight home tonight anymore”.
This came after the trio watched a clip of Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto’s aggressive overtake attempt of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso on Turn One, which was close to causing a collision.
Speaking to F1 shortly after the race, Bortoleto said he “didn’t see” Alonso.
“I didn’t know that he was actually there… I tried to open the corner, and Fernando was there,” Bortoleto explained.
Of course, Piastri made the “flight” remark as a reference to the pair’s close relationship with Alonso referring to Bortoleto as the “best of the new generation” ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix in March.
“Very impressive, very good, but no surprises,” Alonso said of Bortoleto’s performance at the Australian Grand Prix on March 16. “He’s the best of the new generation – together with Ollie [Bearman].
“He’s well prepared. He worked really hard all winter long, and I think Melbourne is not the easiest track to make your debut. The race, especially, was super tricky for everybody, so it was a hard test, but it was very impressive – the first of many.”
The pair are managed by the same company, A14, and boast a healthy friendship.
“I think there are clear rules that I stay in front, that’s my understanding,” Alonso joked when pressed on whether competing on the track could harm their relationship.
“No, jokes aside, it’s great to see Gabriel’s career so far. For us at A14 [Alonso’s management company], we feel extremely proud of the relationship. This year is going to be the first year he’s not winning, so we have to maybe accept that. But it’s part of his learning curve.”
“For me, it’s a bit different,” he added.
“All the advice and insights I’ve given him over the past two years – it’s a bit strange now because I’m giving him the same, trying to help him as much as I can with experience of circuits, preparation, how to approach race weekends, marketing activities, the way to spend energy, save energy – all those kinds of things.”
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