If you watched the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix midway through Sunday’s race and thought for a moment it was 2021 again, you probably weren’t alone. As the laps ticked by at the Hungaroring, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen engaged in a fierce battle for position on the track, reminiscing about one of the sport’s most memorable seasons.
But this is not 2021. It’s 2024 and things have changed. Verstappen and Hamilton were battling on the track, but their battle was for the final podium spot, while McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were just running away.
However, McLaren’s eventual one-two finish may have raised further questions for the team.
After missing out on a one-two finish at the British Grand Prix, there had been doubts for two weeks about whether McLaren would be able to join the fight at the front, but a day of strength on Saturday seemed to answer those questions. McLaren started the day with an exclusive front row after Norris qualified on pole and Piastri in second, but it was the Australian driver who took the lead from the start and built a lead over Norris for the first two-thirds of the race.
However, McLaren had to make a decision, and at their final pit stop they moved Norris from second to first, denying Piastri two extra laps. The undercut propelled Norris into first place, but the team eventually instructed him to hand it over to Norris. The Australian driver was instructed to close the gap to Norris, at which point his teammate would step aside to “recover the position”.
But David Coulthard F1TV, “[w]Why does Lando Norris make a move with 15 laps to go?
The team repeatedly warned Norris that he was using too many tyres in the final laps, but this was just another way of telling him to let Piastri catch him. The message sent to Norris from the McLaren pitwall was “Turn 4, Turn 11”, indicating where he should slow down to conserve his MCL38 medium tyres, but the underlying message was clear.
Let’s relax and let Piastri catch up.
“I think we are reaching the limit of professionalism,” Coulthard said. F1TV As for the repetitive message, Norris is in danger of becoming a distraction, even though the message is clear.
At one point McLaren reminded Norris about the Sunday morning briefing and told him he’d voiced his opinion, and shortly afterwards race engineer Will Joseph even told Norris that McLaren had been trying to “protect” him.
Finally, Norris delivered his own message: “Yeah, well, tell him to catch up.”
But on lap 68, Norris conceded: he slid sideways to let Piastri pass, propelling his teammate to his first Grand Prix win.
But at what cost?
“I’m sorry but I made a much more painful change than necessary,” Piastri said after taking the chequered flag.
“You never know how many chances you’re going to get in this game,” said Coulthard after the race, who heard McLaren remind Norris of his message that there would be plenty more chances to win.
It was a moment Coulthard experienced himself as a driver, and as the laps went on he explained that if he had it to do over again, he wouldn’t have stepped aside to hand the win to Mika Hakkinen. (It’s worth noting here that Coulthard’s presence in the commentary booth for this race provided valuable insight into McLaren’s thinking, and what was going on in the minds of both Norris and Piastri in the closing stages.)
“It’s been a great day as a team, I think that’s the most important thing to be honest,” Norris told Nico Rosberg trackside.
“The team asked me to do it and I did it, and that’s it,” Norris told Rosberg about the team orders. “We’ll keep pushing.”
“It’s exactly the day I dreamed of as a kid,” Piastri said. “Obviously it was a bit complicated at the end… but I’d like to thank the team.”
Piastri also spoke about team orders.
“The team executed well and I think it was the right decision,” Piastri added.
in Interview Independent Earlier this week, McLaren CEO Zak Brown summed up the reason behind the team’s incredible turnaround over the past year.
trust.
“The environment was pretty toxic, there was very little trust or belief. Everything was really bad. When I started, people were presumed guilty until proven innocent,” Brown continued. “It was damaging to the culture.”
Brawn had high praise for McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, who took up the role in December 2022 ahead of the 2023 F1 season.
“Trust each other,” Brown added. “There’s a big cultural difference in not making up conspiracy theories out of thin air. Andrea has done a great job of setting clear direction and instilling in her team a mindset of improving a little bit every day — learning from and embracing mistakes, rather than blaming anyone.”
Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, it was a big day for McLaren. Their 1-2 finish in Hungary gave them 43 points, while Red Bull had to settle for fifth and seventh. Not only was that enough to overtake Ferrari for second place in the F1 Constructors’ Championship, but it also moved McLaren 27 points closer to the frontrunners, with Red Bull having to settle for 16. It’s the latest sign that a real title fight is on the horizon.
However, repair work may be needed to ensure reliability remains intact ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
