McLaren slammed as teammate drama sours Piastri’s maiden F1 win
Oscar Piastri’s maiden F1 win has been soured by some ice cold radio messages from his teammate, who was forced to gift the Aussie the victory.
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Oscar Piastri claimed his maiden grand prix in the most dramatic of circumstances after his teammate Lando Norris was forced to step aside in the final stages of the Hungary Grand Prix.
Piastri started second on the grid but took the lead on the opening corner as Max Verstappen went wide, forcing him to give Norris second position and hand Piastri a decent lead.
Piastri had led the race for most of the day after grabbing the lead on the opening lap, but found himself behind Norris with about 25 laps remaining because of team tactics.
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Norris was in second and had Lewis Hamilton hot on his heels so McLaren allowed him to pit first. Changing to fresher tyres first gave him an advantage on Piastri, who rejoined the race in second after his pit stop.
Norris, who is second in the drivers’ championship behind Max Verstappen, wanted to stay in the lead and eat into his rival’s lead, but was told over several extremely tense messages from his engineer over team radio he had to let Piastri past.
Meanwhile, Piastri was urged to catch up to his teammate to make the call easier.
It created an incredibly tense and awkward finish as Norris built a five-second gap on the Aussie – and had a lengthy argument over the team radio about why he should be allowed to stay in front.
“I know you’ll do the right thing,” Norris was told.
McLaren told Norris on lap 49 of 70 they wanted to “re-establish the order at your convenience”, with Piastri’s engineer telling him the move would be made “once you get to Lando”.
When Norris was told to manage his tyres and give the place back to Piastri, he said: “Then you should’ve boxed him first then, surely no?”
Told by his engineer “that doesn’t matter”, Norris replied “it does to me”.
Norris was adamant he was the faster driver, but he was told:
— “You’ve proved your point.”
— “I’m trying to protect you.”
— “The way to win a championship is with the team. You’re gonna need Oscar.”
— “Just remember every single Sunday morning meeting we have.”
Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle described the radio back-and-forth as “extraordinary”.
But on the 68th of 70 laps he finally obeyed team orders and pulled aside to giftwrap Piastri the first win of his career.
“It was a bit complicated at the end,” said Piastri, referring to the repeated demands from the team to Norris to let him through for the win.
“The longer you leave it (the driver swap), the more you get a bit nervous, but it was well-executed by the team.
“It was the right thing, I put myself in the right position at the start ... yes my pace wasn’t as fast as I would’ve liked in the last stint but I was still in the right position to make it happen.”
“Amazing day for us as a team. Oscar controlled the race and he deserved it today,” said Norris.
For a first time race winner, Piastri was seriously muted on team radio as he crossed the finish line and you got the sense he didn’t want the milestone to come this way.
oscar apologising instead of just simply celebrating his first feature win, oh mclaren when I catch you pic.twitter.com/TNJusZH08X
— Maude (@schumihoney) July 21, 2024
“Thanks very much everyone,” Piastri said over team radio.
“Thanks for the coordination. Sorry I made that swap a little bit more painful than it needed to be, but thank you appreciate that. Well done. Maximum points, really good weekend. Huh, first F1 win. Thank you everyone.”
The 23-year-old wrote on social media post-race: “First Grand Prix win. Incredible.
“I dreamt of this day as a little kid back in Australia. A truly unbelievable feeling.
“Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me and thanks to the team for this opportunity and all their hard work. Such a special day.”
Piastri had been developing a reputation as one of the unluckiest men in F1 after a pit stop drama at the British Grand Prix robbed him of the chance to challenge for victory.
He’s also been on the receiving end of his fair share of brutal radio calls, notably when he was reminded not to cause a crash in the backfield as Norris headed to his own maiden victory at Miami in May.
Their faces 😑 pic.twitter.com/4FxeLanr0z
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 21, 2024
McLaren was widely slammed for putting both drivers in awkward predicaments by not pitting Piastri first.
F1 commentator Will Buxton wrote on X: “One of the most subdued first time winner’s radio I’ve ever heard. Utterly horrible race management from McLaren once again, denying the Australian the pure and unbridled jubilation he should have felt.
“Once again, poor pitwall decisions led to McLaren putting their drivers in unacceptable positions of having to make the calls for themselves on track. Don’t want Lando in the lead, don’t give him the undercut. A wholly unnecessary mess. The team has to get itself together.
“The tough choice, but the right choice for the championship, would have been a Norris win.”
Tom Bellingham wrote: “McLaren put Lando in the most awful situation there.
“If McLaren wanted Oscar to win they should have pitted him first then they wouldn’t be in this mess. This is all on McLaren.”
Matt Gallagher said: “Lando does not deserve any sh*t for driving to win that race.”
Piastri had won a Sprint race in his rookie season last year, but had been chasing his first full-length grand prix win for some time as McLaren enjoyed strong pace this season.
He becomes just the fifth Australian to win a F1 grand prix — joining Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Webber, Alan Jones and Jack Brabham.
Piastri is the seventh different race winner this year — the most in a season since 2012.
It was McLaren’s first 1-2 since Daniel Ricciardo won the Italian Grand Prix ahead of Norris in 2021.
Norris finished second while Hamilton grabbed third, after a late tangle with Max Verstappen.
Verstappen, who still leads the championship from Norris, finished fifth after a tetchy race when he had to give a place back to pole-sitter Norris at the start after going wide as Piastri took the lead at the first corner.
A late lunge by the three-time world champion past Hamilton forced his Red Bull off the track, with the stewards reviewing the incident.
Hungarian Grand Prix results
1) Oscar Piastri
2) Lando Norris
3) Lewis Hamilton
4) Charles Leclerc
5) Max Verstappen
6) Carlos Sainz
7) Sergio Perez
8) George Russell
9) Yuki Tsunoda
10) Lance Stroll
11) Fernando Alonso
12) Daniel Ricciardo
13) Nico Hulkenberg
14) Alex Albon
15) Kevin Magnussen
16) Valtteri Bottas
17) Logan Sargeant
18) Esteban Ocon
19) Zhou Guanyu
DNF: Pierre Gasly
- With AFP
Originally published as McLaren slammed as teammate drama sours Piastri’s maiden F1 win
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