McLaren F1 conspired to sour their first 1-2 Formula One finish for the team since 2012, with poor race strategy and driver management. Oscar Piastri scored his maiden win in the sport although he later admitted the circumstances surrounding his victory were “not ideal.”

Having somewhat messed up the strategy last time out in Silverstone, McLaren appeared determined not to allow Lewis Hamilton the undercut on Norris as the Mercedes ran in P3 behind the leading McLaren duo.

This meant a change of protocol for the final round of pit stops, with the team chasing to stop Norris first to cover off Hamilton passing him on fresh rubber. McLaren then made the strange decision not to pit Oscar the following time around, forcing the young Australian to complete two full laps before he was given his final set pod tyres.

 

 

 

Hamilton fears unfounded

Meanwhile, Lando had put in a stela two laps and emerged ahead of his team mate once McLaren finally called Oscar in. This left the team with a problem given they had appraised Piastri of their decisions before hand assuring him he would not suffer from the choice of Norris stopping first.

Of course McLaren were so much quicker than the Mercedes, that the strategy team shouldn’t have been concerned about Lewis, unlike Red Bull and Verstappen who did not have sufficient pace this weekend to overtake the Mercedes over the closing laps. Lando eventually finished the race 15 seconds ahead of Hamilton and this after slowing more than 5 seconds to allow Piastri through.

With Norris now in the lead, a rather too nice instruction was given to the British driver to swap positions with his team mate “at your convenience.” Lando continued in the lead arguing the result for the team remained the same whichever of their drivers was to win, but the Norris himself would lose out on seven points in his hunt to chase down Verstappen in the drivers’ championship.

Part of the problem McLaren created was while they’d appraised Piastri of the pit stop change of protocol which should have seen the Aussie stop first for fresh rubber, nothing was said to Norris. Lando took advantage of the situation putting in lap after lap which was quicker than his team mate and extending his lead each time around.

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Visions of Schumacher, Vettel and Alonso

The team issued a hurry up to Oscar to close the gap so they could facilitate the switch around of the cars, but Piastri had no more speed on his final run. Which begs the question had the drivers been pitted in the correct order, whether Norris would have chased down Piastri and overtaken him anyway.

It appeared as though Norris was going to ignore the instruction as the radio messages from the team telling him to give up the place became more desperate and embarrassing. Lando appeared to be finally persuaded when it was suggested to him with two laps to go, that a safety car now would take the matter out of their hands.

Visions of yesteryear returned for F1 fans as the ruthlessness of Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso all come flooding back and in some way even McLaren fans must have been cheering Lando on as he disputed the team’s instruction.

Gary Anderson believes Norris consistent delay in acting on the team order is proof of his anger and was an appropriate display of selfishness an F1 champion requires.

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Norris defiance and trust issues

“It feels like the grandstanding nature of ignoring requests to cede was part of Norris showing some sort of insolence that’s expected of a champion – in the vein of the aforementioned drivers,” Anderson writes for The Race.

Surprisingly few have criticised Norris for not ignoring McLaren’s instructions, although David Coulthard recalls a time when he was forced to cede position to his team mate Mika Hakkenan, and reflected if he had his time again he would ignore the team’s instruction.

Yet surely Lando Norris now in his sixth season in F1 with McLaren should have put his foot down and ‘grow some balls’ as one commentator suggested. Norris recently signed a multi-year deal to remain with the team, while Red Bull behind the scenes were courting the English driver.

The topic of trust has also been banded around with suggestions that McLaren will have doubts in future over whether Norris is prepared to execute the strategy he has been given.

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Abu Dhabi will decide the issue

Others believe Norris should have handed back the position immediately and then hounded his team mate to the chequered flag, which would of course given McLaren a further headache.

Come Abu Dhabi if the driver title is between Verstappen and Norris and the gap is in single digits, only then will McLaren accept the error of their ways. Piastri is not the finished article and regularly struggles more than his team mate with excessive tyre wear, something which Norris could have exploited as the laps counted down towards the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Lando was clearly upset in the driver cool down room, where the top three meet and relax before the presentation ceremony. Lewis Hamilton congratulated Lando on his quick car and something snapped within the McLaren man.

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Norris outburst against Hamilton

Hamilton: “Ooft, you guys are fast,” the seven-time world champion said. Appearing to believe this to be a dig, Norris was curt in his response.

Norris: “Yeah, well you had a fast car seven years ago.”

Hamilton: “Seven years ago? That’s a long time. Were you even here seven years ago?” Hamilton said.

Norris: “Well you had it. You had a quick car. You made the most of it. Now it’s us,” the 24-year-old added with bite.

Lewis attempted to qualify the fact he “wasn’t complaining” but “complimenting your car,” which in itself could be taken the wrong way as diminishing the input from the driver.

This incident demonstrates there is a Lando Norris who can win races and titles, not the pushover who gave in to his team’s silly errors during the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix.

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Hamilton SLAMS Verstappen attitude

While it may not be 2021 2.0 in terms of the race for the F1 titles this season, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton retain a deep rooted animosity towards each other, founded in the infamous battle for the championship three years ago. Recently Max revealed his vision was blurred for the second half of the 2021 season following Hamilton nudging him off the track at the high speed Copse corner causing a 50g impact for the Dutchman.

Lewis was penalised by the stewards but came home to claim the race victory regardless of the penalty imposed. Max returned the favour in Monza when he attempted a manoeuvre around the outside of the chicane and ended up with his rear wheel spinning just inches from Hamilton’s head.

Since the epic battle for the title which was decided on the last lap of the last race in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton/Verstappen on track incidents have been few and far between mostly due to Mercedes’ failure to get on top of the new ground effect car design regulations… READ MORE