F1 star lifts lid on true antics of group chat including Hamilton and Verstappen

Oscar Piastri has revealed the inner workings of the mysterious F1 WhatsApp group chat, explaining that the chat is used for more professional measures, rather than for catch-ups, banter and stand-offs between the drivers, as many fans had hoped.

The existence of the group chat, or at least the public knowledge of it, dates back to Romain Grosjean’s time as the director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA). 

The French driver, now racing with F1 hopefuls Andretti in IndyCar, worked with Sebastian Vettel to get the drivers into a group chat in order to pool their concerns for him to take to Liberty Media and the FIA in between race weekends.

For years, the chat had been restricted to just an occasional topic of F1-related banter on social media channels with no peeks behind the curtain, before Nikita Mazepin returned it to the headlines when he confirmed that he was ousted from the chat in the immediate wake of his Haas departure.

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Addressing the current state of the group, Piastri told the P1 Podcast: “There is. Yeah, there’s like the GPDA WhatsApp group chat.” However, when asked if the drivers were using the chat to swap memes and banter with one another, Piastri was forced to deny the fact.

“I think everybody has this really grand idea of how exciting is and people are just taking shots at each other and posting memes, but it’s really quite boring”, he added.

While Piastri was insistent that the chat was being kept as a professional environment, George Russell, who is the current head of the GPDA and therefore the admin, suggested that the group can spiral out of control from time to time. 

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Speaking on The Fast and the Curious podcast earlier this season, the 25-year-old explained: “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.”

Most drivers have remained tight-lipped about the secrets of the F1 group chat, but Lando Norris has also offered some insight.

Speaking on the same podcast as Russell, the McLaren driver revealed that the group icon was an image of James Hunt, who remains one of F1’s biggest cult heroes, before explaining that all drivers, including the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, offer their contributions.

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