McLaren defend Hungarian GP strategy calls after frustration from Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris on radio during race

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has defended the strategy calls the team made during the Hungarian Grand Prix after Oscar Piastri was initially critical as he lost out to team-mate Lando Norris.

Piastri started third but overtook Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and pole-sitter Norris in the opening corners to take the lead at the end of the first lap.

McLaren attempted to give the Australian, as their lead driver on track, strategic priority, but pressure coming from Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton at the second round of pit stops forced their hand.

Piastri came in to ensure he retained track position over Hamilton but then lost his advantage over Norris due to a combination of the Brit’s superior pace and an unfortunate incident that saw him make contact with the Williams of backmarker Carlos Sainz.

Immediately after the Sainz collision, for which the Spaniard was penalised, Piastri expressed his frustration over the radio, before then having a further dig at his team once Norris had stopped and come out on track ahead of him.

Stella said: “If you look at the race trace, you will see that when Hamilton pits, he is in condition to undercut the two McLarens, so we needed to respond.

“Because if that was the right way to take the cars to victory, we needed to have a McLaren in a position of leading that way ahead of Hamilton.

“So, it was either Oscar or Lando. Oscar was in the lead, and we thought that he was the right car to stop for that. And then for Lando, this opened up a different strategy.

“So, it’s not like you are deviating because you are thinking about Oscar and Lando. You are deviating because we needed to avoid that the Ferrari could take the lead of the race.

“I think then what follows has to do with the pace difference because Lando on used tyres was not much slower than the cars on new tyres. And it’s there that he gained the victory today.

“So, I think it’s a victory on pace, and Lando had the opportunity to use it, but not because the team kind of wanted to create it. The team needed to cover Hamilton.”

Piastri: I was upset in the moment but pit stop timing was fine

Piastri, whose race came to an early end as a result of a gearbox failure when he was running in second, would later accept that the timing of McLaren’s stops was fair, and that his request for them to delay Norris’ stop after his own collision with Sainz was not “reasonable”.

Piastri told Sky Sports F1: “I was crashed into by Carlos and, in the moment, I was hoping maybe they would not pit Lando because of that incident to at least give me the chance to stay in the lead but I think that’s not very reasonable.

“I was just more very upset in the moment about what had happened. I think the timing of my pit stop was fine, we wanted to beat Lewis and that’s what we needed to do to.”

Before Piastri was left frustrated, it had been Norris applying pressure to the McLaren pit wall as he repeatedly told them he was faster than his team-mate and urged them to let him make a stop first.

Stella explained why he felt McLaren had been correct in rejecting Norris’ requests, as well as in making the decision that resulted in their drivers swapping positions.

“When you are at the pit wall, you obviously constantly evaluate all the options,” he said. “And you look at that from different angles. You look at that from making sure that you can achieve a victory in a race like that.

“You can look at what’s the way to score as many points for the team. But there’s also a way, which is being consistent with the way we go racing.

“And I think up until the time Oscar pitted, Oscar had gained the lead in a fair manner in corner one, with the action in corner one and two, so he deserved an opportunity to try and win the race.

“In other tracks, probably, Lando might have overtaken Oscar. But in this case, it’s difficult, you need a large pace advantage here to be able to do so.

“So, we were happy to give Oscar the opportunity to fight for the win. And then, at the same time, making sure that we were protecting the way we go racing. So, that’s the approach we adopted. Obviously, it’s always quite marginal. There’s many options that you can consider.

“But I think today was a well-executed race from a racing principles point of view. And I have to thank Oscar and Lando, because it would not be possible to do so without two drivers that accept and support our way of going racing.”

Piastri: Sainz should look in the mirror

Despite withdrawing his criticism of his own team, Piastri remained unhappy with Sainz for causing their collision.

After criticising the Spaniard in an expletive-filled radio rant moments after the collision, Piastri later told reporters: “I knew there were blue flags, but there were blue flags on all the marshal signals, I was right behind him for a sector.

“I couldn’t believe what happened. Getting crashed into by a lapped car is never one of the things you expect that can go wrong in your race, and today it was, so I don’t really care if he didn’t see me.

“The fact that he didn’t and no one told him, or there was a lack of complete awareness, is unacceptable.”

Sainz largely defended himself after the race, claiming issues with blue-flag signals and that he had been fighting Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for position combined to make a “good excuse” for the incident.

Sainz also questioned whether Piastri could have been a bit more cautious given the high stakes of competing for a race win.

Piastri was unimpressed when told of Sainz’s comments, responding: “He’s quite critical of others, and others have given him some stick before for being frustrating on-track.

“When you go and do something like that, maybe you should look in the mirror a bit.”

The Formula 1 season resumes after the summer break with the Dutch Grand Prix from August 21-23, with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime

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