Oscar Piastri’s maiden Grand Prix win came at the 2024 Hungarian GP on Sunday. But his moment of glory was somewhat ruined by the team orders fiasco that made Lando Norris relinquish the lead to the #81 driver with two laps to go. 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill has come out to say that he feels this will leave a bad taste in the mouths of the fans.
Piastri took the lead off of his teammate into turn 1 on the first lap of the race. He then went on to essentially lead the race until McLaren decided to pit Norris first during the final phase of the race. Norris naturally undercut Piastri and inherited the lead.
This was followed by incessant requests on the team radio to persuade Norris to give the position back to Piastri. After more than ten laps of back-and-forth on the team radio, the #4 driver finally yielded.
Not only did this take the shine off of Piastri‘s maiden win, but Hill feels this would result in people debating about team orders all over again. Hill wrote on X (formerly Twitter),
“The issue is not what was agreed before the race. The issue is that people pay to see a race. Not a display. It always leaves a bad taste. But in the next few hours, weeks, and years, people will debate the rights and wrongs of this kind of thing. But remember Austria 2002.”
The issue is not what was agreed before the race. The issue is that people pay to see a race. Not a display. It always leaves a bad taste. But in the next few hours, weeks, years, people will debate the rights and wrongs of this kind of thing. But remember Austria 2002. #f1
— Damon Hill (@HillF1) July 21, 2024
Back at the Red Bull Ring in 2002, Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello was leading the race from Michael Schumacher until the very final corner on the final lap of the race. Team orders from Ferrari back then saw the Brazilian driver brake right before the finish line to hand the victory to Schumacher. After outrage from the fans and media, team orders were banned from F1 by the FIA.
Norris points the finger at McLaren for the team orders fiasco
In the aftermath of the race, the talking point has been the decision of McLaren to pit Norris before Piastri. The #4 driver himself believes that if McLaren had not taken that call in the first place, the drama that ensued later would not have occurred.
He explained, “It’s not my fault. I was leading the race in a way.. simply the team should have boxed Oscar first and we wouldn’t be having this discussion so.. it’s not that.. […] but.. at the same time, this guy here [pointing at Piastri] deserved to win today. He did an amazing job.”
lando: it’s not my fault, i was leading the race in a way.. simply the team should had boxed oscar first and we wouldn’t be having this discussion so.. it’s not that.. […] but.. at the same time, this guy here *signals at oscar* deserved to win today, he did an amazing job. pic.twitter.com/3uWZyTrMML
— comfort lando (@safeforlando) July 21, 2024
It was a pretty extensive discussion between Norris and the pit wall. Seemingly, the #4 driver was not in the mood to yield to his teammate. However, after much persuasion from his engineer Will Joseph, Norris gave in to the request of the team and let the #81 driver through on lap 68 of the 70-lap Grand Prix.
