Oscar Piastri reveals contents of F1 drivers’ WhatsApp group

Sam Cooper 10 Aug 2023 5:15 PM

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri reacts to jetman accident at the Austrian Grand Prix. Spielberg, July 2023.

Oscar Piastri has revealed there is no “taking shots” or “memes” going on inside a WhatsApp group shared by the Formula 1 drivers.

Anyone who is employed in 2023 will no doubt have been part of some kind of work group chat during their career.

Whether that be WhatsApp, Teams or one of the numerous other services, it seems even Formula 1 drivers are part of the modern phenomenon.

‘No memes or taking shots’ reveals Oscar Piastri

Piastri,有点meme himse大师lf after his public Alpine departure, has lifted the lid on just what goes on inside the Formula 1 drivers’ WhatsApp group and unfortunately for all of our imaginations, it is a rather tame affair.

“There’s like the GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers’ Association) WhatsApp group chat,”he told the P1 podcast. “I think everybody has this really grand idea of how exciting it is and people are just taking shots at each other and posting memes but it’s really quite formal.”

Piastri is not the first driver to comment on the WhatsApp group and indeed not even the first McLaren driver with Lando Norris detailing who exactly is in charge of the group.

“There is a WhatsApp group,” he told the Fast and the Curious podcast. “I mean it’s not like we’re sending banter in there day after day but there are occasions where something may have happened on track and suddenly people are sending memes in and whatever and it gets a bit out of control.

“James Hunt is the group photo.

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“It’s true [the group exists]. It’s not so much like ‘hey, we’re all mates’. It’s a lot more for talking about things that can help us as drivers in terms of rules, regulations, it’s more like how can we represent ourselves?

“I don’t know how much [George Russell] revealed, he’s like the head of it.

“It’s a little bit of everyone [who contributes]. We are all kind of chatting and working together to come up with different ideas. We’ve got Esteban [Ocon], we got Zhou [Guanyu], we’ve got Alex [Albon]. Everyone chats in it [but] I can’t find any memes.”