McLaren Bosses, Not Race Engineer Should Have Told Lando Norris to Give Up His Win, Says F1 Expert

McLaren made things difficult for themselves in the final few laps of the Hungarian GP, with late-race chaos between Lando Norris and his race engineer Will Joseph. The latter kept asking Norris to slow down for Oscar Piastri, who conceded P1 to the Briton owing to a wrong strategy call from McLaren. However, Karun Chandhok feels that the bosses at McLaren should have relayed the team order to Norris instead.

The way Joseph kept pleading with Norris to give the position back to Piastri was uncomfortable. And at one point, it seemed as though the Bristol-born driver would not comply. Plus, the orders given by Joseph were not direct.

Chandhok felt that Joseph should not have been put in that situation. He explained that Joseph had been on Norris’ corner for a long time, even before he took up duties of being his race engineer.

“I think this was something for either Randeep Singh [McLaren’s Racing director] or even Andrea Stella [Team Principal] to make that call rather than put Will Joseph in the position… He’s Lando’s guy and as a driver, you have to feel like your engineer is on your side and your guy is backing you. That’s so important for you psychologically.” 

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Chandhok also backed his point by explaining how Mercedes handled similar similar situations in the past. They would bring Ross Brawn into the equation when there was tension between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Or James Vowles, when Valtteri Bottas had to be asked to slow down for the seven-time World Champion.

Chandhok explains how McLaren should have handled the driver swap

Chandhok said that if the Woking-based squad was sure about pitting Norris first, they should have told him that they were doing so to protect him from Hamilton. Had that resulted in the change of the race lead, they would reestablish the order after Piastri’s stop.

The Indian former racing driver said,

“I feel like they could have preemptively explained it to Lando in advance and said, ‘Lando, we’re going to bring you in first but you have to give up the position to Oscar’.”

What I want to know, and so far what hasn’t been answered is, what was Will Joseph trying to protect Lando Norris from?

“I promise, I’m trying to protect you”

From what? Winning races? Staying with McLaren? pic.twitter.com/oLOtVelyW2

— Iain Oakley (@IainOakley) July 21, 2024

This would have made it clear what the team was expecting from Norris. Plus, it would have prevented the radio conversation which made it look like McLaren couldn’t control its drivers.