Lando Norris’ true feelings on McLaren, Oscar Piastri’s Hungarian GP win

Lando Norris’ true feelings on McLaren, Oscar Piastri’s H...

By Jay Postrado July 22, 2024 07:51

The expectation for most McLaren fans was that they were supposed to be happy after the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix. However, the moment that divided the Papaya fan base came when Zak Brown and the rest of the engineers decided to make Oscar Piastri overtake his teammate, Lando Norris, with two remaining laps in the race. Understandably, there was also a sour taste in the mouth of both drivers after the checkered flag started waving for the young Australian’s first F1 victory.

An ideal first win in the pinnacle of motorsport has the elements of a cheering crowd, a united faithful celebrating, and the two drivers getting along. However, McLaren’s Hungarian Grand Prix win with Oscar Piastri looked like the Multi 21 and Brocedes incidents. Lando Norris, while ecstatic that his teammate won, unveiled that he was very tempted to disobey the orders of their race engineers, via Giles Richards of The Guardian.

“Things are always going to go through your mind because, you know, you’ve got to be selfish in this sport at times. You’ve got to think of yourself. That’s priority number one, think of yourself. I’m also a team player, so my mind was going pretty crazy at the time. When you’re thinking of the seven or six points that I give away, then … it crosses your mind. So it was not easy,” he said. “It’s hard when you’re in that position to give it back because you’re there and of course that went through my mind,” Norris declared.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Piastri ended up winning with a lead of +2.141 seconds. Norris, on the other hand, still managed to grab P2 over seven-time World Drivers’ Champion Lewis Hamilton. He was able to outmaneuver the veteran driver and created a separation of +14.880 seconds. Clearly, McLaren’s pace was insane in this race and no one could match them at the Hungaroring.

“I know what I’m going to do and what I’m not going to do. Of course, I’m going to just question it and challenge it and that’s what I did. I was put in this situation and it’s not my fault that I was leading the race in a way. The team should have just boxed Oscar first and we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. As a team, maybe we could have done things slightly differently,” he added.

As of the moment of writing, McLaren is closing the gap between them and World Constructors’ Championship leader Red Bull. Their two wins and 11 podiums have just placed them 51 points behind Max Verstappen and Christian Horner’s squad. Norris has also retained his second-place ranking in the drivers’ standings. Meanwhile, Piastri is in the top five behind the prancing horse’s iconic duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.