‘He’ll be fuming’: Oscar Piastri dudded by McLaren teammate

There has been uproar over a moment where Oscar Piastri was the victim of an all-too familiar Formula 1 order at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris go wheel to wheel. Photo: Twitter.

The most painful thing for those close to Oscar Piastri will be that McLaren’s dubious strategy to favour his teammate was ultimately vindicated.

The Aussie star wowed the Formula 1 world at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday night — jumping up to P2 after a rocket ship start off the line — but his race got worse and worse as the day progressed.

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After just missing the podium at Silvertone, it was another case of so near, yet so far for Piastri who finished fifth behind Lewis Hamilton.

It was ultimately a satisfying day for Aussie fans with Daniel Ricciardo proving he still has it with a fighting drive through the back of the field.

Piastri had a superb start, sneaking past Hamilton and Lando Norris on the opening corner to give himself a shot at the podium.

But his top three hopes were dashed when Norris undercut him by pitting a lap early and he was overtaken by Perez and Hamilton later in the race.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the decision to pit Norris first was a bid to protect the Briton from losing position to Hamilton.

“In terms of the undercut that we had at the first stop, you just go really with the sequence that is natural, because you cover with the car that is more at risk, and then you cover with the other car,” Stella said.

McLaren’s pitstop strategy with Oscar Piastri was debated. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)

“Lando’s out lap was just super, super quick, which meant Oscar lost the position. To be honest, our approach to these situations is to think about team first. We think as a team, and then we deal with the internal situation.”

Stella revealed the Aussie was hampered by floor damage.

“Oscar had damage on his car, and this meant that he lost some time from a performance point of view,” he said.

“But also, we think because this was rear downforce, this caused extra degradation of the tyres. And that’s part of the reason why he struggled then to keep up with Lando, but also with the other cars coming behind him.”

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris go wheel to wheel. Photo: Twitter.

No complaints. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images.

Piastri struggled after pitting for hard tyres and finished more than 30 seconds behind his teammate. It may well have been different had he not been managing the floor issue, which he suffered after going over a kerb.

Formula 1 commentators were at the time blowing up over the McLaren undercut, despite Hamilton chasing them both down.

“Piastri and his manager Mark Webber will be concerned about that,” Sky F1 guru Martin Brundle said.

“He was running front McLaren and got second pit stop. So the undercut there has moved them around. Maybe that’s what McLaren wanted.”

F1 commentator Matt Gallagher posted on Twitter: “Piastri gonna be FUUUUUUMING with that undercut from McLaren”.

I bet Mark Webber is probably not the happiest man after seeing that undercut on Piastri, triggered some multi 21 memories for him #HungarianGPpic.twitter.com/PrtWpa4og2

— ahmed baokbah 🇸🇦🏎✈️ (@ahmed_baokbah) July 23, 2023

Piastri, however, played it down, saying: “It wasn’t ideal to come out behind Lando but when you finish 30 seconds behind him, it clearly didn’t make much difference. I think it was a lot of tyre management.

“I couldn’t do much more to defend. I tried reasonably hard against Checo and he was out of sight in two laps. Some things to review on tyre management but overall a good day for the team,” he said.

Piastri admitted after the race he struggled on the hard tyre.

“First stint was good. Second and third stints were average. Just lacking a lot of pace. Not too sure why. Just struggled a lot with the tyres. Something to review.

“I feel I did a lot of good work in the first stint and struggled in the next two. Happy to hang on to P5. At one point I thought we would be further back than that.

“We will have a look at what I could have done better. Obvs the car is capable of more than that.

“So we will look at what I can do better to predict the tyres and learn. It’s only the second race I’ve had like that with multiple pit stops and a lot of deg. So some struggles are expected in some way but I want to do a better job than that.”

Ricciardo, meanwhile, couldn’t have done much more in his AlphaTauri than what he delivered.

It was looking grim for Ricciardo after two pit stops in the first 30 laps, but he ended up finishing back where he started in 13th — making his medium tyres last a mammoth 40 laps.

He finished two places ahead of his AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who was 15th.

Hungarian Grand Prix results

1) Max Verstappen

2) Lando Norris

3) Sergio Perez

4) Lewis Hamilton

5) Oscar Piastri

6) George Russell

7) Charles Leclerc

8) Carlos Sainz

9) Fernando Alonso

10) Lance Stroll

11) Alex Albon

12) Valtteri Bottas

13) Daniel Ricciardo

14) Niko Hulkenberg

15) Yuki Tsunoda

16) Zhou Guanyu

17) Kevin Magnussen

18) Logan Sargeant

19) Esteban Ocon

20) Pierre Gasly

— with AFP