‘I had trust’: Piastri keeps calm despite Norris defiance
Matt Clayton
Monday, 22 July 2024
Oscar Piastri said he was confident teammate Lando Norris and McLaren would stick to the script despite late-race tension making his run to a maiden Grand Prix victory more fraught than he would have wanted.
When all evidence suggested the contrary, Oscar Piastri kept the faith.
With the laps counting down to the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Australian had been told that teammate Lando Norris – who had been allowed to undercut him to see off the threat of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes behind – would relinquish track position to put Piastri back into the lead he’d earned on merit at the first corner of the race. But Norris was proving hard to convince.
Advertisement
Piastri emerged from his second pit stop on lap 47 behind Norris, and it took until lap 68 for the lead to be handed back to him; three laps later, Piastri was a Grand Prix winner for the first time. While the way McLaren handled the situation will dominate the news cycle for the short term, Piastri said he trusted his team to do the right thing.
“I had a lot of trust in the team and Lando,” he said.
“Lando was fast at the end, that was clear, but the strategies that we went onto meant it was effectively an undercut for him. I think it was a fair decision to swap us back at the end.
“We discussed a lot last night and this morning about how the race would look, and we were free to race each other and both try to finish the race as long as we finish one and two. That’s more or less what we did.”
The 1-2 was McLaren’s first since Daniel Ricciardo led Norris home at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, and capped a weekend where McLaren had considerably more pace than the rest, locking out the front row for the first time since Brazil 2012 and converting 24 hours later.
With pole not having won in Hungary for three years heading into Sunday, Piastri knew there was a chance to make amends for missing P1 in Q3 by just 0.022secs, and made the best of a tight fight into the first turn with Norris and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen to emerge ahead. There were still 69 laps and 13 corners to go, but that first 10 seconds set him on his way.
“I got a good start, just good enough that I could get my nose in into Turn 1,” he said.
“It was strong racing, but I think fair. That really set me up for the rest of the race. That’s really what won it for me today. I think we did a lot of things right, for me still some things to work on and improve for the future, but I think I did the big things right.”
Norris said afterwards that following the team edict was “tough”, but added “it was fair just to give the position back … it was the right thing to do.”
Piastri appreciated the belated gesture, and sympathised with his teammate’s conundrum.
“In Lando’s position, I could understand he’d want to keep the position, of course,” he said.
“It’s only natural. From my point of view, I did all the right things in the first half of the race until the last pit stop. The only reason we pitted the cars the way we did was to cover off different people, and that naturally meant that he undercut me.
“Of course it’s never the easiest thing to work out, but I think we’re all respectful and trustful enough to see the reasons why, no matter which side we’re on.”
Despite being part of a controversy he had no control over, Piastri wasn’t going to let how his win came to pass be a dampener to his breakthrough moment.
“It’s very special, this is the day I dreamed of as a kid, standing on the top step of an F1 podium,” he said.
“Obviously a bit complicated at the end, but I put myself in the right position at the start, and thank you to the team for an amazing effort and an amazing car. It’s a hell of a lot of fun racing with McLaren, so I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity to be in F1.
“To have a win together 18 months in is an incredible feeling.”
Oscar’s Hungarian Grand Prix by the numbers
- Qualified: 2nd
- Race: 1st
- Fastest lap: 1min 21.716secs (8th), lap 51
- Points this event: 25
- Points this season: 149 (5th in world championship)
