Yahoo Autos Taking Team Orders, Oscar Piastri, McLaren Shake up F1 Standings with Hungarian Grand Prix Win
Oscar Piastri landed his maiden Formula 1 victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, becoming the seventh different winner, of an increasingly engrossing 2024 season, while an irascible Max Verstappen clashed with Lewis Hamilton.
Autoweek recaps the main talking points from the Hungaroring.
Piastri Wins, But McLaren Makes It Tough
Oscar Piastri fully deserved his maiden victory after a fast start ensured he catapulted his McLaren in front of Lando Norris’ sister machine on the run to Turn 1.
They maintained that order through the first and second stint of the Grand Prix, with Piastri holding a 2 second advantage, but McLaren pitted second-placed Norris two laps earlier than Piastri on the second round of pit stops, on laps 45 and 47 of 70 respectively.
McLaren outlined that they pitted Norris first to cover the threat from third-placed Lewis Hamilton, but such was the power of the undercut on fresh tires that Norris leapt ahead of Piastri.
A sequence of radio messages went back and forth between Norris and his race engineer Will Joseph, who instructed the Briton to cede the position to Piastri, based on the fact that Norris had been given priority over pit stop timing to ensure he was not threatened from behind.
Leader Norris bided his time, retorting that “you should have boxed him [Piastri] first,” before quipping “I’m fighting for a championship am I not?” Joseph became more urgent, telling Norris “I know you’ll do the right thing” as the laps ticked down and replied to Norris’ intransigence with a stern notice that “the way to win a championship is not by yourself, it’s as a team, and you’re going to need Oscar, and you’re going to need the team.”
Norris duly obliged, slowing at the start of lap 68 of 70, with the papaya machines swapping positions. By that stage Norris had grown his lead from a couple of seconds to 6 seconds, perhaps making a point, but it was a slightly sour way for McLaren to claim a richly deserved 1-2 finish. The MCL38 was the fastest car at the Hungaroring and after a sloppy few races McLaren scored maximum points, but had gone about it in a manner that created unnecessary tension.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella defended the approach and stressed that the strategy was chosen to minimize any risk of losing the 1-2 result.
“I just did not want to have a situation at the pitstop where there's a problem with a [wheel] nut, or there's a problem with the execution that puts us behind a Mercedes or a Ferrari,” Stella said. “I know that for the media, I know that for [those] watching on TV, this becomes a story, but for us internally, this becomes part of the way we go racing and that's why we invest so much in culture, in values, and in the mindset because we want to be able to manage this situation if we want to be in the championship with Lando, with Oscar, and with McLaren.”
Norris spent 20 laps in the lead before ceding the spot, but Stella emphasized that he never doubted Norris would oblige to the instructions.
“Because he's a race driver,” Stella said on why the swap took so long. “Mention to me a race driver that would have not done it? Actually, I think you can mention to me many that would have not done it until lap 70. And I would be extremely concerned in that case, yes, if Lando had not demonstrated “like I'm a race driver here” because that's the ethos you need to fight hard. Like you need to fight when you are in contention with the likes of Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and more and more, I guess, Oscar himself.
“I guess as a race driver, Lando always wanted to show that he was in condition to win today. But we knew he was in a condition to win, like Oscar was in a condition to win. So I guess he was trying to make the point, which is also why Will said we understand your point and we genuinely understood his point. But the important thing is that then he realised that there was a team player role to be played and he did it.”
The amenable Stella was nonetheless firm on his unwavering requirement.
“I don't want to discuss too much, but this one is simple, is the interest of the team comes first,” he said. “If you mess up on this matter, you cannot be part of the McLaren Formula 1 team.”
Norris Admits His Mind Was ‘Going Pretty Crazy’
For his part, Norris was put into the uncomfortable situation by the strategy, and faced a very difficult decision.
Verstappen still holds a commanding 76-point title advantage, but the difference between first and second place is seven points, and with McLaren resurgent, and Verstappen and Red Bull in a slight wobble, what once seemed impossible could be feasible.
“These things are always going to go through your mind,” Norris said. “You’ve got to be selfish in this sport at times. You’ve got to think of yourself, that’s priority number one, think of yourself. I’m also a team player.
"My mind was going pretty crazy at the time. I know what we’ve done in the past between Oscar and myself, he’s helped me plenty of times, and I think this is a different situation. This is not someone helping one another. I was put into a position, and we were undoing that position change.
"I know a lot of people are going to say, like, the gap between me and Max is pretty big. But if Red Bull and Max make the mistakes like they did today, and continue to do that, and as a team we continue to improve and have weekends like we’ve had this weekend, we can turn it around. It’s still optimistic. It’s still a big goal to say we can close 70 points, as a driver I can close 70 points in half a second. When you’re thinking of the seven or six points that I give away, it crosses your mind, for sure."
Norris was nonetheless keen to stress that “I didn’t give up the race win—I lost the race win off the line” and was complimentary to his teammate.
“The thing is I was put in this situation, and it’s not my fault I was leading the race in a way,” he said. “Simply, the team should have just boxed Oscar first, and we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. So it’s not that. I just think as a team we could have done things slightly differently, and I’m sure we’ll talk about it. At the same time, this guy here [Piastri] deserved to win today. He did an amazing job, he got me off the line. That’s a very special feeling winning your first race.”
Piastri Joins Winners’ Club
Whatever the drama surrounding the strategy, this was a deserved victory for Piastri, who has had a couple of near-misses and misfortune this season.
The Australian picked up a Sprint race win in Qatar as a rookie last year but this was the proper first Formula 1 victory, as he became the 115th driver to climb onto the top step in the history of the championship, and the first born in the 2000s.
“It was an incredible moment,” Piastri said. “I mean, it's always special when you get to stand on an F1 podium, but it's a little bit nicer when you're at the top of it. So very happy. Yeah, like I said, an incredible moment that I've been dreaming of for a very long time. I said my first dream in my career was reaching F1. The second one is winning a race. So yeah, I'm very, very happy and proud and not just of myself, but everybody that's helped me get to this position. Going back to my family firstly, of course. Took a lot of big decisions at a young age to chase the F1 dream. It's very difficult to become an F1 driver by staying in Australia, so it meant some big decisions early in life.”
Piastri also echoed Stella in affirming that he never doubted that Norris would play the team game.
“The only thing I was concerned about a bit was if there was a safety car, then it would have taken the situation out of our hands, would have taken the control out of our hands,” Piastri said. “So, that was really the only thing I was a bit concerned about, but we'd spoken about it at the timing of the stop that we would sort it back out. And, yeah, I mean, I had full trust in everyone in the team, including Lando, that we would make that happen.”
F1 Hungarian Grand Prix
Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 1:38:01.989, 25 points
Lando Norris, McLaren, +2.141 seconds, 18 points
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +14.880, 15 points
Charles Leclerc. Ferrari, +19.686, 12 points
Max Verstappen, Red Bull, +21.349, 10 points
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, +23.073, 8 points
Sergio Perez, Red Bull, +39.792, 6 points
George Russell, Mercedes, +42.368, 5 points
Yuki Tsunoda, RB, +1:17.259, 2 points
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, +1:17..976s, 1 point
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, +1:22.460
Daniel Ricciardo, RB, +1 lap
Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, +1 lap
Alexander Albon, Williams, +1 lap
Kevin Magnussen, Haas, +1 lap
Valtteri Bottas, Kick Sauber, +1 lap
Logan Sargeant, Williams, +1 lap
Esteban Ocon, Alpine, +1 lap
Zhou Guanyu, Kick Sauber, +1 lap
Pierre Gasly, Alpine, +37 laps
F1 Drivers' Championship Standings
Max Verstappen, 265
Lando Norris, 189
Charles Leclerc, 162
Carlos Sainz, 154
Oscar Piastri, 149
Lewis Hamilton, 125
Sergio Perez. 124
George Russell, 116
Fernando Alonso, 45
Lance Stroll, 24
Nico Hulkenberg, 22
Yuki Tsunoda, 22
Daniel Ricciardo, 11
Oliver Bearman, 6
Pierre Gasly, 6
Kevin Magnussen, 5
Alexander Albon, 4
Esteban Ocon, 3
Zhou Guanyu, 0
Logan Sargeant, 0
Valtteri Bottas, 0
F1 Constructors' Championship
Red Bull, 389
McLaren, 338
Ferrari, 322
Mercedes, 241
Aston Martin, 69
RB, 33
Haas, 27
Alpine, 9
Williams, 4
Kick Sauber, 0
