F1 star lifts lid on 'awkward' cooldown room with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell

F1 star Oscar Piastri has admitted his experience with Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the cooldown room after the Belgian Grand Prix was an “awkward” one. The McLaren star finished the race in third place, but was subsequently promoted to second after Russell was disqualified.

Piastri has been in fine form in recent months after McLaren introduced an upgrade package at the Miami Grand Prix in May.

The Australian clinched Grand Prix victories in Hungary and Azerbaijan over the summer and has also secured five other podium places.

One of those top three finishes came at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium at the end of July as Russell ended the race ahead of his team-mate Hamilton.

Russell had taken advantage of Mercedes’ decision to put him on a one-stop strategy, with Hamilton given a two-stop strategy. However, the former Williams star was ultimately disqualified because his car was 1.5kg underweight.

Before the exclusion, the top three drivers on the day made their way to the cooldown room. And Piastri discussed the occasion as he spoke to Cosmopolitan in a video interview from the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking after being asked to detail his most uncomfortable cooldown room experience.

The 23-year-old told the publication: “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. 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.”

After learning of his disqualification, Russell wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Heartbreaking. We came in 1.5kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race. We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first. There will be more to come.”

Hamilton later explained: “I feel for George, and you don’t want to win a race through a disqualification. But we have been back in the fight for victories in the past few races.

“It is incredibly competitive now, so we will need to work hard to battle for wins more consistently.”