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Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has criticized teams and drivers for their handling of the blue flag confusion during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
A system malfunction during the race meant that blue flag notifications were not being sent to cars that were a lap down.
The issue caused significant frustration among the leaders, with Oscar Piastri even making light contact with Carlos Sainz as they battled for position. Max Verstappen was also visibly angered by the situation, calling those who failed to move out of his way "idiots" over team radio.
Coulthard stated that the system glitch was not a sufficient excuse for drivers failing to recognize the leaders and allow them to pass without unnecessary delay.
"It was like the first day of school! And I'm talking kindergarten, judging by how the drivers reacted to the blue flags," Coulthard said on the Up to Speed podcast. "Some will say there was a problem with the timing systems, but there's such a thing as spatial awareness, and your engineers are actually watching what's happening from the pit wall."
Coulthard argued that it would have been easy for engineers to instruct their drivers about approaching front-runners simply by looking beyond the pit wall.
"I made this comment during the broadcast: very few teams now have visibility from what we affectionately call 'the silly place' – the engineering wall, where engineers and the team principal usually sit," he said.
"In Toto Wolff's case, of course, he sits in the garage, but back in the day, they would watch, truly watch over the pit wall, and have some idea of where other cars were."
"So you can never predict in qualifying for someone to come out of the pit lane. But in a race, when cars are running at full speed, you can usually tell. Well, not usually – you absolutely can tell! It just wasn't a good enough performance."
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