The 2024 Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix will be remembered less for the racing and more by the drama on team radio. Max Verstappen bitched at his engineer from the moment he was forced to hand back P2 to Lando Norris in the opening laps.

Verstappen called the team’s strategy “shit” and blamed the team for “fucking up my race.” Then following a collision late in the race with Lewis Hamilton the world champion was trying to influence race control with his radio messages but was curtly told by his engineer this was “childish.”

Yet Red Bull and Verstappen were not the only team having radio drama’s, McLaren painfully suffered for their strategy error which saw them pit Lando Norris at the final stop before his team mate. The reason given at the time was to cover off the undercut from Mercedes with Hamilton.

 

 

 

McLaren strategy error for Norris

However, the race data demonstrates the pace of the McLaren was far superior to the silver arrows and the move was unnecessary but proved to be embarrassing for the Woking based team. Not only did the team pit Norris first, but then told Piastri to circulate twice more knowing Norris was now on the quicker tyre.

Following the Aussies final stop he predictably appeared on circuit now behind his team mate. While McLaren had told Piastri they would reverse the undercut, Norris had been told nothing but was asked to reverse the order “at your convenience.”

Norris persistently refused and the McLaren radio messages became ever more desperate until with just two laps to go, Lando concede the place to his team mate along with the race win.

Lando was unhappy on the warm down lap cutting across the usual post race congratulations curtly stating: “Yeah you don’t need to say anything.”

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Norris curt with Hamilton

In the drivers cool down room, Norris and Piastri had a minimal exchange of words and when Hamilton arrived following his P3 post race interview things got plenty frosty.

“You guys are fast,” Hamilton remarked.

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

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

To which, Norris added: “Well you had it. You had a quick car. You made the most of it. Now it’s us.”

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Lando ‘still young’ explains Hamilton

Lewis muttered a sort of apology suggesting he was just complimenting their car rather than complaining. The just silence.

Now Lewis addresses the exchange with Norris suggesting the McLaren driver behaved as he did due to his lack of experience. “It didn’t bother me, no,” Hamilton explained in Spa Francorchamps. 

“Look, I’m nearly 40 years old, so I remember being in my mid-twenties and I remember, when I go back and look at things that I said that I would have said differently or I would have reacted differently.”

Hamilton went on to share that for a driver who believes he should have won an F1 race, “your emotions are firing.” He continued suggesting “its an age thing” and he didn’t take it personally.

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Lewis locked himself away for 3 days

“So I don’t think you can be particularly great without putting pressure on yourself. You’ve got to aim high and if you fail and you’re like, that’s the greatest thing ever and you’re really relaxed about it, I don’t think you’re ever going to naturally achieve what you intend to achieve,” added Lewis.

Hamilton then shared how he’d locked himself away for three days after a similar disappointing result when he was around Norris age and how that was unhealthy.

“I hope he doesn’t [do that]. I think what’s important is that we continue to do what we’re doing. The drivers are great. They’ve got a great car.”

Norris was pictured in tears in the garage afterwards and was surrounded by his crew shielding him from most photographers lenses. The British driver was most upset about the seven points he’d been forced to cede to Max Verstappen in the championship, and as history demonstrates this was with good cause.

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Norris deficit not insurmountable

James Hunt is the only driver ever to overcome a larger deficit to win the world championship in 1979, yet the significantly different point system back then clouds the measure of his achievement.

Had Norris been allowed to retain the win, he would now be just 69 points behind the world champion. Kimi Raikkonen overcame a 72 point effect in 2007 as there was a four way fight for the championship.

Sebastian Vettel came back from a 44 point deficit to Fernando Alonso in 2012, although there were less races that season and Max Verstappen himself recovered from a 46 point deficit to Charles Leclerc in 2022 ton win the drivers’ championship at a canter.

With eleven Grand Prix weekends remaining and three more Sprint events on the schedule there are 310 points up for grab before the end of the season and Norris needs to on average to outscore Verstappen by 6.9 points per race weekend.

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Hamilton says team orders paramount

Norris history in Belgium is not good, having two seventh place finishes as his best results over the years. Yet the MCL38 now looks to have the legs on the RB20 and with Verstappen facing a ten place grid drop due to fitting a new ICE, Lando could close the gap by more than the average points he requires before the summer break begins.

Hamilton was asked whether the McLaren call to Norris to remind the lead of the race was something Lewis would have been comfortable with. “It’s not my call to make,” he said. “I mean, if that was Max, he wouldn’t have let him pass. I don’t know what to say. It’s not for me to decide.

“If I was in that situation, I would do what the team asked me to do, as hard as it is. Ultimately, because it’s not about you. It’s about the 2,000 people that you’re representing and working with.”

Of course Hamilton has had his fair share of fierce battles with team mates, most notably with Nico Rosberg. At the season finale in 2016 Hamilton was leading the race but with Rosberg directly behind him, the title would go to the German.

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Wolff marks Lewis card over disobeying team orders

Lewis decided to back Nico into the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel and behind him Max Verstappen. He needed Rosberg to finish in P4 and for him to win to claim the title. The Mercedes team recognising Hamilton’s tactics told him to pick up the pace.

“I’m in the lead right now,” he responded to Paddy Lowe’s unusual intervention. “I’m quite comfortable where I am.”

Post race Toto Wolff described Lowe’s intervention as “the highest escalation (procedure) we have,” and issued a warning to Hamilton.

“Anarchy doesn’t work in any team or any company,” he said. “Undermining a structure in public means you’re putting yourself before the team.”

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F1 team on the “brink of collapse

Michael Andretti will be reading today’s news with a wry smile on his face. He and his proposed F1 team have been listening to propaganda from the paddock claiming that the current line up of competitors are in rude health.

Guenther Steiner claimed at last season’s pre-season testing: “Five years ago, you could get teams for nothing, you could pick it up. Nobody wanted them and they went out of business.

“Now, all of a sudden, everybody wants a team. But it’s a lot of people that want to come in and the 10 teams which are here are all financially stable, all well set up. It’s a very good environment at the moment, no one is struggling.”  READ MORE