McLaren Isn’t Ready To Handle Two Top-Notch F1 Drivers

Oscar Piastri may have won the Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix for the McLaren team, but the thunder of his victory was roundly stolen by his teammate Lando Norris‘ radio battle with his engineer. As the world listened to Will Joseph begging Norris to return a seemingly ill-gotten position to Piastri, one thing became abundantly clear: McLaren’s indecision regarding its own strategy is shaping up to become the team’s fatal flaw.

The 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix was one of the most compelling F1 races of the season, if only because it really highlighted how many of the drivers on the grid fare when the pressure is on—and it started as soon as the lights went out.

McLaren had secured a front-row lockout with Norris on pole, but the Briton’s streak of poor starts struck again. Oscar Piastri took the lead in a three-wide battle with his teammate and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and for much of the race, that was that: Piastri established a comfortable lead, while Norris struggled to chop down the gap.

Common race strategy dictates that the top-running driver of any team has first dibs on hitting the pit lane, but on lap 46, McLaren made that decision for both of its drivers. It called Norris into the pits—presumably, it seemed, to play blocker against a fast-approaching Lewis Hamilton—and told Piastri “We’ll manage the situation.”

Cue disaster: When the post-pit stop order shook out, Norris was in the lead with teammate Oscar Piastri several seconds behind, and the Briton wasn’t going to make things easy for his teammate.

Norris’ race engineer hopped on the radio to tell his driver, “We’d like to reestablish the order at your convenience”—or, politely, please give your teammate back his position. Piastri was asked to speed up and get closer to Norris to avoid both drivers losing time.

But Piastri couldn’t quite catch up to his teammate, who was being informed that he was “using the tires too much.” Will Joseph pleaded with Norris, saying first, “I know you will do the right thing” and “Just remember every single Sunday morning meeting we have.”

Norris’ response? “Yeah, well tell him to catch up then please.”

The rest of the conversation between the two played out like this:

• Joseph: “Lando, he can’t catch up. You have proved your point and it really doesn’t matter.”

• Norris: “He is on much quicker tires and no pressure. I would have tried the undercut anyway.”

• Joseph: “Mate, we did the pit stops in this sequence for the good of the team.”

• Norris: “And I am fighting for a world championship, am I not?”

• Joseph: “I am trying to protect you, mate. I promise, I am trying to protect you.”

Joseph pointed out that “the way to win a world championship is not by yourself,” but it wasn’t until he stated that “if there is a safety car, this is going to make it very awkward; please do it now” that Norris slowed to let Piastri by.

It was an excruciating conversation to listen to. It’s clear Norris is desperate for a chance to make up for the wins he’s thrown away this season, desperate for a chance to challenge Verstappen for the World Championship.

It’s also clear that McLaren screwed up.

In F1, teams generally try to avoid letting their drivers duke it out for critical positions, like the lead of the race. That means that a team’s every strategy call must be made with that in mind—and especially so for the final pit stop of a race that will establish the running order through to the checkered flag.

That’s why the front-running team member generally gets first dibs on strategy: The thinking is that because that driver earned a better position thus far, they should have the chance to make the call they feel would be most likely to keep them ahead of their teammate—or in Piastri’s case, the lead of a race in pursuit of his first-ever Grand Prix victory.

But McLaren didn’t offer Piastri that choice. McLaren made it for him, seemingly without informing either Norris or Piastri of what was happening. Instead, it simply assured Piastri that the situation was under control, while Norris seemed to believe he had just been gifted the win of a lifetime.

There’s likely to be a lot of criticism thrown at Norris after this, but put yourself in his shoes. After several years in the sport, you finally have the car and the skills necessary to challenge for a championship. You’ve thrown away several wins in the past thanks to poor starts or poor strategy, and suddenly, your team has just given you the lead. You have no idea at first that the team pitted you as a defense against Hamilton and that McLaren had intended Piastri to keep his lead. To you, it just seems like Piastri made a bad strategy call. Of course you want to keep that lead. Of course you want to win.

No; the critique here should fall on McLaren.

The Woking-based team has made stunning strides over the past several years, blossoming from a midfield-at-best team to a legitimate contender for pole positions and race wins. It fields two talented young drivers that are both desperate for a taste of glory. That’s an enviable position to be in, but it’s also one that comes with a heaping side of politics. You have to be prepared to make decisive calls, to clearly establish a running order, to tell a driver what he needs to do.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren showed it wasn’t quite ready to reckon with the less savory elements of becoming a contender for wins. Whether or not it can learn from those mistakes in time to prevent a dramatic fallout between its drivers remains to be seen—but McLaren is going to want to figure it out pretty quick. The Belgian Grand Prix is right around the corner.

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