The McLaren F1 team landed their first Formula One 1-2 finish in more than a decade and yet the celebrations for Oscar Piastri’s maiden victory were muted to say the least. On the podium Lando Norris hung his head while his team mate celebrated looking to the skies maybe in a prayer of thanks that Norris finally capitulated to team orders.

Yet the big story for Formula One is as Verstappen and Red Bull head for the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, it is the first time the world champion has been winless across three consecutive race weekends since 2022. Red Bull are suffering something of a meltdown as their star driver lambasted the team repeatedly during the race.

Its fair to suggests Norris could have won the last five races in a row but for bad team calls and poor strategy, and if so Lando  would have a victory tally for the season of six, one behind the current leader Verstappen.

 

 

 

The lost 7 points

The team orders issued by McLaren cost Norris 7 points in his attempts to reel Verstappen in and the current deficit of 76 would have been reduced to 69. With eleven races remaining, Norris needs to outscore Verstappen on average by 6.9 points per race, which in the early part of the season would have been a laughable objective.

However, Red Bull no longer have the fastest car and over the last three Grand Prix, Max has two P5’s and a P2 worth a total of 38 points from a possible 78. Were this be the rate at which Max scores over the remainder of the year, a blend of P1 and P2’s for Lando Norris would see him claim the title with ease.

At present Verstappen is averaging just over 20 points over the thirteen race weekends so far, which includes three wins in the Sprint events in China, Miami and Austria adding 24 points to his total.

The sight of Red Bull’s lack of pace in Hungary which resulted in a stream of X rated outbursts from Verstappen, together with McLaren’s impressive speed advantage leaves Norris in no doubt he can beat Max to the title this year. 

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Norris defiant over title race

“You would be silly to say ‘no’,” said the 24-year-old when asked if the championship race was still alive. “Don’t get me wrong, I know there are a lot of points to make up and a lot of people believe I have no chance, but we are going to keep fighting and I am going to give myself the best opportunity.

“When you see Max and Red Bull not performing so well and making mistakes and crashing, you want to make the most of those opportunities and plenty more can happen in the future, so it is still on,” reflected Norris.

“It is a big stretch and an optimistic one, but I’m not going to say ‘no’ to the challenge. Psychologically I am happy and I am ready to battle.”

Red Bull as a team dropped 27 points to McLaren who are now their closest rivals just 51 points behind the world champions. This despite a gutsy drive from Sergio Perez who started the race in P16 but made his way through the field to finish just two spots behind his team mate in P7.

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It all started lap 1

Under pressure for the first time since 2021, Max took aim at the team throughout the race criticising the handling of his car and describing the team’s pit stop strategy as “s***.” A late collision with Lewis Hamilton when battling for P3 saw Max passed by Charles Leclerc and although the RB20 didn’t appear damaged after flying through the air, Verstappen’s fight was all over.

The edgy exchanges between Max and his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who has been with the Dutch driver since 2016, began on the first lap of the race. Verstappen passed Lando Norris at turn one but was ordered to give the place back when the stewards stated they were investigating his off track antics.

This year 10 second penalties have been handed out for such transgressions so Red Bull played safe knowing they didn’t have the pace of the early season.

Max chundered away after allowing Norris through telling his engineer: “OK, so you can just run people off the track then? You can tell the FIA that’s how we’re going to race from now onwards… just driving people off the road.”

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Max says “s***” team strategy

On lap 38 of 70, Verstappen bungled an attempt to pass Hamilton for third place, his following message to the team appeared to blame them for his poor car setup. “I’m minus five brake bias and the thing just doesn’t f—–g turn. It’s unbelievable.”

Red Bull again allowed Hamilton to pit to give Max track position and a better tyre offset during the closing stages of the race. All weekend the drivers have been explaining how the hard tyre has to be brought up to racing speed gently, or it compromises the tyre left towards the end of a stint.

Verstappen set off in a flurry on his final stint in an effort to close down Hamilton and take third place behind the McLarens. After just one lap on fresh rubber, Lambiase mocked his driver for pushing the tyres too hard saying: “That’s some gentle introduction.”

Verstappen replied: “No mate, don’t give me that s— now. You guys gave me this s— strategy, OK? I’m trying to rescue what’s left.”

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Engineer disagrees with Verstappen

Earlier, Max had observed when Hamilton stopped first, “It’s quite impressive how we managed to get undercut. It completely f—– my race.”

Having collided late in the race with Hamilton, Max blamed the Mercedes driver for causing the accident. “Shouldn’t you leave a car’s width?” Verstappen queries of GP, only to hear the response: “I think you were behind at the apex, Max,” from Lambiase.

Verstappen baulked: “OK, whatever then.”

The final straw for Lambiase came after Verstappen kept muttering about Lewis moving under breaking. In the most defiant message from GP during their nine years together, he scolds Verstappen stating:

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Verstappen told it is “childish”

“I’m not going to even get into a radio fight with the other teams. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio. Childish,” he said. Silence followed.

Max Verstappen’s mood did not improve when he faced the F1 assembled media after the chequered flag. When asked if he had been lacking in respect over the team radio in Budapest, the Dutch world champion retorted:

“They can all f— off,” before walking out of the media open and away from the journalists.

Red Bull and Max are clearly rattled and with the team bringing its biggest upgrades of the season to Hungary to no effect, Norris should be hopeful he can close the championship gap to the world champion on average by seven points a race here on in.

The naivety of McLaren at this year’s race in Budapest may yet come to haunt them at the season finale taking place once again in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton SLAMS Verstappen attitude

 

 

 

Lando Norris needs to ‘grow some balls

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… READ MORE