Ex-Team Principal Eddie Jordan Explains Lando Norris Was Right to Give Up the Win at Hungarian GP

McLaren stole the spotlight in Hungary not only for locking out the front row and finishing one-two in the race but also because of how the intra-team battle itself played out. And there have been so many opinions out there about whether what the team and Lando Norris did was right or not to give up the race win. However, former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan explains that Norris did exactly the right thing.

Starting from second, Oscar Piastri took the lead of the race on the first lap into Turn 1 and led all the way through. However, McLaren miscalculated and brought in Norris first for a fresh set of Medium tires that allowed him to inherit the lead of the race. And while the team wanted to reestablish the original driver positions, it looked like Norris was not going to give the lead back to Piastri, who thoroughly deserved his maiden Formula 1 victory.

However, after almost 20 laps of back-and-forth between Norris and his race engineer on the radio, which included some uncomfortable messages, the Briton finally gave the place back to his teammate and settled for P2. And according to Jordan, Norris did the right thing as he explained to David Coulthard on the ‘Formula For Success’ podcast.

“I’m just thinking as a team principal,” Jordan told Coulthard. “The right decision was made, absolutely, and full marks to Lando. When it all calmed down, he said to me, which was the most emphatic moment, and that is, ‘I lost this Grand Prix of the line,’ and that’s a fact… Oscar was so brave into that first corner, the three of them going together. That was a magic piece of driving.”

Jordan also emphasized that no matter what one thinks or how one feels as a driver, once the team has made a decision, one has to comply with that every single time.

Coulthard thinks McLaren could have done a much better job

Following Jordan’s analysis, Coulthard agreed that Piastri thoroughly deserved the win on that day. However, Coulthard still thinks that the way McLaren handled the situation with Norris was extremely poor.

He emphasized how the team risked straining the relationship between the driver and his race engineer, two people who should have absolute faith in each other. Coulthard noted,

“I just felt that having the race engineer give the instruction and of course, in modern Formula 1 it’s played out for all of us to hear… it just puts the race engineer and the race driver relationship under a little bit of strain.”

Coulthard also believes that the way McLaren handled the situation took away the happiness of Piastri’s first win, which should not have happened.