Piastri retired and furious
In Hungary, the McLaren returned to experience the thrill of dominating Formula 1. After a difficult first part of the season, the reigning world champions in Budapest were back to their form of the last two years, capable not only of winning the race but of dominating it. Without the technical problem that stopped Oscar Piastri in the final laps, Lando Norris’s victory would have been accompanied by his teammate’s second place. As often happened in previous years, however, when the two Woking cars found themselves ahead, internal problems began.
Piastri was indeed ahead of Norris in the first phase of the race, but was overtaken by the reigning world champion after the second round of pit stops. The Australian was greatly slowed down by the near-miss incident with the lapped Sainz, but over the radio in a fit of anger, he accused the team of deliberately complicating his life by making him re-enter the track in a traffic situation, while Norris ahead found himself with a clear track and the opportunity to express his full speed.
Stella calms things down
In the traditional post-race press conference, organized in the McLaren hospitality, team principal Andrea Stella immediately sought to defuse potential controversies: “I would like to clarify that immediately after the race Oscar clarified that his comment was dictated by anger and that, as the race unfolded, the competition between the two McLaren drivers was entirely fair and we witnessed a good race. So, from this point of view, I believe we are quite satisfied with the race we saw today,” Stella emphasized.
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“The drivers had their opportunities in turns 1 and 2. I am very happy with the respectful approach they had towards each other, avoiding contact, and in the end Oscar took the lead because he judged the grip in turn 2 better than Lando. From there, Oscar had his opportunities to win the race, to take the lead. At one point we had to pit to cover Hamilton, because here you cannot afford to give any positional advantage. And then there were a couple of unpleasant episodes. Obviously the most important was Oscar’s collision with a lapped car – Stella added – there Oscar lost some seconds. At the same time, once Lando had a clear track, his pace simply became fantastic. I believe he gained half a second per lap and this pace allowed him to exit the pits ahead of Oscar. The good news is that both McLaren drivers were in contention for the win and the podium. It is absolutely understandable that when you are leading the race for many laps and then lose the lead due to an incident with a lapped car, you might have a moment of anger and make a comment over the radio, but from this point of view, there is absolutely no problem“.
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