McLaren used team orders during the Hungarian GP, telling Norris to give up the lead of the race to his teammate Piastri. But as we heard on the fiery radio communications, Lando did not plan on handing over the position. See the full transcript below.
McLaren secured a front-row lock out in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with Lando Norris qualifying on pole position and his teammate Oscar Piastri starting in second after setting a lap time just 2 hundredths of a second slower.
When the lights went out at the start of the Grand Prix, the McLaren both got a good start but Piastri, starting second, had a slightly better jump. He managed to get up the inside of Lando in to Turn 1, just as Max Verstappen was running around the outside of Norris.
Max ran wide on corner exit but the extra speed from doing so allowed him to pass Norris for 2nd place. However, the stewards noted that Max had gained an advantage by running wide and a few laps in to the race Red Bull told Max to give the place back to Lando, which he reluctantly did.
Piastri maintaned the lead of the race after the first set of pit stops completed on Lap 19. Piastri looked comfortable and stretched his lead out to around 4 seconds over Lando. But as the race progressed towards the second round of pit stops, Lando closed the gap to just under 2 seconds.
Usually the driver at the front gets priority in the pit stops. But McLaren opted to pit Lando one lap earlier, on lap 46, to cover off a quick Hamilton behind them.
By pitting one lap ahead, he had the benefit of the undercut on the newer tyres and when Piastri emerged from the pits one lap later, Norris had leapfrogged him in to the lead. Oscar was told by his team to ‘not worry about Lando’, but as it turned out, worry he needed to.
However, McLaren planned to reinstate the order of their two cars to how it was prior to those pit stops. That would require Lando to give the lead of the race back to Oscar, which Lando did not want to do.
Here’s how the fiery team radio between the McLaren race engineers (Will Joseph is Lando’s race engineer and Tom Stallard is Oscar’s) and their drivers played out for the remainder of the race:
Lap 48 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “Ok Lando, Oscar had just pitted. He’ll likely come out behind you. We’d like to re-establish the order at your convenience.”
Lap 51 to Oscar:
Tom Stallard: “Ok Oscar, once you get to Lando, we will swap positions, but we want to avoid Lando having to give up a lot of race time.”
Lap 53 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “Radio check Lando?”
Lando Norris: “Loud and clear.”
Will Joseph: “Ok, save the tyres in Turn 4 and Turn 11 then please.”
Lap 55 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “We need you to save your tyres please and we do want to let Oscar through.”
Lando Norris: “Well you should have boxed him first then surely no?”.
Will Joseph: “Doesn’t matter.”
Lando Norris: “I mean, it does, to me maybe.”
Lap 58 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “Ok Lando we still think you’re using the tyres too much Turn 4 Turn 11, and the rears at exit Turn 6 Turn 9. Oscar’s 3.5, I know you’ll do the right thing.”
Lap 59 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “Hiroshi (Imai, director of race engineering) is worried about the tyre issue.”
Lap 59 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “Turn 4. Turn 11. It’s gonna get boring.”
Lap 61 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “Ok Lando, 10 laps to go. We think both cars are using their tyres too much. Just remember every single Sunday morning meeting we have.”
Lando Norris: “Yep, ok, tell him to catch up then please.”
Lap 64 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “Ok Lando he can’t catch you. You’ve proved your point.”
Lando Norris: “He’s on much quicker tyres. I mean I would have tried to undercut anyway.”
Will Joseph: “Mate, we did the pit stop sequence in this order for the good of the team. I’m trying to protect you mate, I promise I’m trying to protect you.”
Lap 66 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “Ok Lando there are 5 laps to go. The way to win a championship is not by yourself. It’s with the team. You’re going to need Oscar and you’re going to need the team.”
Lap 66 to Oscar:
Oscar Piastri: “The longer we leave this the risker it gets.”
Tom Stallard: “Understood Oscar. We’re managing it.”
Lap 67 to Lando:
Will Joseph: “If there’s a VSC now it makes this awkward. Please do it now.”
At the start of Lap 68, Norris backed off along the start / finish straight and finally let Oscar pass him to re-take the lead of the Grand Prix.
Lap 68 Lando:
Lando Norris: “Yeah you don’t need to say anything.”
After the finish to Oscar:
Tom Stallard: “Well done Oscar well done, chequered flag. Well done buddy really good.”
Oscar Piastri: “Yep, thank you everyone, thank you very much. Thanks for the coordination. Sorry I made the swap a little bit more painful than it needed to be but thank you, appreciate that.”
After the finish to Lando:
Lando Norris: “Well done good 1-2, load of points, well deserved.”
Oscar Piastri: “As we said this morning mate, many more opportunities.”
When interviewed after the race, Lando was asked how difficult the decision making was in the race. Lando said: “It’s tough, I know what Oscar’s done for me in the past. I think this is a little bit different, but at the same time I got told to let him past and I did.”
“It’s always tough when you’re fighting for a win, and a win means so much to me and him. Yeah, I just had to try and put myself in his shoes and understand it that way, because every driver’s selfish and you have to be selfish in this game. When you’re just thinking of your own benefit you’re only thinking of the good things, but I put myself in his shoes and I had to do what was right.”
