McLaren receive warning over Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri with ‘come to a head’ prediction
Oscar Piastri secured his first F1 victory in Hungary.
Although Eddie Jordan believes there will come a time the McLaren intra-team rivalry comes to a head, that Lando Norris wasn’t a “d*ck” in Hungary will “play itself out” in time.
Having emerged as Red Bull’s closest challenger this season, McLaren’s advantage in the Constructors’ Championship is that they have two drivers scoring big points.
‘It was a little bit uncomfortable to see it being played out’
That meant their 1-2 finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix slashed Red Bull’s lead to just 61 points.
The downside though, is in the Drivers’ Championship with Oscar Piastri’s victory at the Hungaroring taking points away from second place Lando Norris, who sits 76 points behind Max Verstappen on the log.
Running 1-2 in Hungary, Piastri led for much of the Grand Prix before McLaren made the call to pit Norris first in the second round of stops to cover off Lewis Hamilton. The undercut meant when the stops played out it was the Briton who was ahead of his Australian team-mate.
McLaren and Norris’ race engineer Will Joseph spent almost 20 laps begging him to play the team game and give the position back to Piastri, with Norris eventually doing so three laps from the end of the race.
The team orders have divided fans and pundits alike, former drivers and team bosses too with Coulthard and Jordan debating it in their latest Formula For Success podcast.
“I said at the time, opening old wounds but that was a bit of an exaggeration rather than boo-hoo being asked to move over in a Grand Prix,” Coulthard, a 13-time Grand Prix winner said.
“But if I think the purity of the best person winning and putting to one side, of course you need a team, of course, you need a great group of individuals coming together with a desire to build your car and put on the track, but the drivers are still the stars of the show. That’s the fact, isn’t it?
“So it was a little bit uncomfortable to see it being played out in the way it happened.”
“Maybe you think this from a driver sitting in the cockpit,” Jordan replied, “and I see it as a team principal with all the staff and all the commitment and their families and the suppliers and everybody else, including most importantly the sponsors. I have to see that everything has been done right and correct.
“In the decision of the team, Andrea Stella, he made a decision which he relayed through his team of engineers and various things to Lando, he was given an early chance to pit to cover off Lewis Hamilton – and that was a reason. Otherwise the guy in front, which was obviously Oscar, had full rights to that position.
“And I suppose there are other things that probably may have gone through their mind. You know, we screwed up with Oscar at Silverstone over the stacking situation or whatever. I don’t know what goes on in a team, but I’m just thinking as a team principal the right decision was made, absolutely.
“Because full marks to Lando when it all calmed down, because what he said to me, which was the most emphatic moment, and that is, ‘I lost this grand prix off the line’. And that’s a fact. Oscar was so brave into that first corner, the three of them gone together. That was a magic piece of driving, I loved it.
“So it was a great grand prix, and I think that was the right decision, because once the team makes the decision that driver has to comply, you may not like it, and I know that you were the subject of some of those things against Kimi for example, I can speak about Ralf Schumacher never been really happy with me over telling him not to pass Damon Hill. This is life.”
More reaction to McLaren’s Hungarian GP team orders
Ted Kravitz’s ‘unsayable’ Lando Norris question after McLaren team orders drama
Martin Brundle shares F1 contract clause amid Lando Norris tactic suggestion
McLaren rivalry will ‘come to a head’
But while DC conceded that Piastri “thoroughly deserved the victory”, he felt it “could’ve been communicated better” as it “put the race engineer and driver relationship under strain.
“I think we just need to cover off again the rights and wrongs of how McLaren managed this race victory because there has been a split reaction and I feel that it slightly took away from the absolute joy and happiness of also getting his first victory.
“You’ve got Lando there, going, ‘yep, okay, I’ve taken the instruction’. Which he should. I did it. You’ve given it to driver, you need the team, there’s no question.
“But when you think of the legacy of the sport, and you think of the history of the sport, you’re looking for those exceptional drivers, those fighters that do things that we couldn’t do, and say things that we wouldn’t say.
“So I just wonder if having all this we’re doing this together only works until it comes to the crunch point, because the crunch point will be…
“Let’s assume McLaren continue this amazing growth of how the team is performing that has been the most important team of the last 12 months, let’s say we’re into next year and it’s basically Lando and Oscar trading victories. It’s going to come to a head.
“And no amount of ‘remember the team’, no amount of ‘listen to the instruction’, will get in the way of the absolute desire to be a champion. We know Senna wouldn’t take team instructions. We know Schumacher wouldn’t take them.
“We know Vettel didn’t do it. Max won’t do it. Lewis Hamilton, there was a situation in Malaysia where he was asked to move over for Nico, and he just didn’t.
“There was another event where Lewis basically didn’t take… in Abu Dhabi when they were in that battle for the World Championship. Lewis was backing Nico up into the pack, hoping the pack would then overtake him. That was pretty uncomfortable for Mercedes, because they’re just wanting a Drivers’ Championship. They don’t want any incident or accident.
“So where do you sit in that. Take away your team principal hat. Where do you sit in that situation Because it will come to a head?”
Jordan replied: “There’s absolutely no doubt it will come to a head and just to endorse what you’re saying, it will come to a head because in the very short time that he’s been in Formula One, Oscar, as I’ve said, he is destined, in my opinion to be one of the greats of our sport going forward.
“Can I say the same about other people there? Absolutely. Lando is one, Lewis is another, and Max is another. And we could go on and go on and go on, George, everyone has a right to be a great.
“But my God, what a fantastic job Stella and Zak Brown have done there, because it’s remarkable where they’ve come from to think to we’re going into the second part of the season, and they could be a real, real candidate for the championship, both the Constructors’ and the Drivers’. So I presume that’s why Lando was a bit upse that they didn’t back him.
“However, I thought it was a very sporting and McLaren’s decision, because that decision had been made. Make a decision management and the structure and the belief and get people to believe that you’re strong mentally as a manager and I think that what Stella had to do was not something that he wanted to do, but he had to do to make sure that he created the right balance in the team going forward.”
But, the former F1 team boss says, Norris’ decision to “stop being a d*ck” will benefit him in the long-run.
“When he was instructed to let him by, and he let him by, do you think in the DRS zone in the last couple of laps, there’s no doubt that Lando was lining himself up to have a crack and then suddenly he’s now five seconds behind.
“So he’s truly been told, which we don’t have access to that in car communications, but there’s no doubt he was told to back off and stop being a dick, or whatever you call yourselves these days.
“Just back off, this is not clever, because then you could have the two crashing into each other. And, you know, no one ever wants and so from a team point of view, first and second, or second and first, it’s the same thing for them. It’s the same number of points. It’s the same thing.
“And I liked what he said, Lando, you’re going to need the team in your fight for the world championship. So therefore this is that Oscar will back you beyond any doubt going forward. And I do believe, therefore that will be, I am sure what goes around comes around, it will play itself out.”
Read next: Lando Norris’ dramatic McLaren rise only highlights Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari peril
