“No Way Ron Dennis Would Have Let That Happen” – Marc Priestley Gives Insight Into McLaren’s Handling of Team Orders

The Hungarian Grand Prix saw McLaren secure their first one-two finish since Monza 2021. However, they made a spectacle out of their two drivers on the way to victory. They had to intervene with team orders for Lando Norris to give away the win to Oscar Piastri and it left a sour taste in the mouth for many. Former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley has also shared his thoughts on the whole debacle.

While Priestley understands why McLaren would have made certain strategy decisions, he thinks that the way they spoke to their drivers during the closing stages was unacceptable. Priestley even went on to say that this would never have happened under the leadership of former McLaren boss, Ron Dennis.

With 25 laps to go in the race, the Woking outfit decided to first pit Norris from P2, to cover Lewis Hamilton’s undercut. It was a bizarre call considering Hamilton was never a major threat to the McLarens in the first place. On top of that, they let the race leader, Piastri, out for an extra lap which gave the race lead to Norris.

What followed was a dramatic set of radio messages between Norris and his race engineer, who was trying to get him to give the lead back to Piastri. After many laps of back-and-forth between the two, including some very unprofessional messages, Norris finally let Piastri through with three laps to go.

Recalling the events of the race, Priestley explained,

“I don’t think it’s going to cause any major problems in terms of relationships at McLaren off the back of what happened today. But you just planted a seed in Lando Norris’ mind that maybe the team is not necessarily in charge here… There’s no way Ron Dennis would have let that happen”.

He mentioned that it also wouldn’t have happened under Toto Wolff’s watch, who would have intervened much sooner and set the expectations straight for the drivers. However, Priestley understands that his former team is fighting at the front after a long time and so, they are likely to fumble. Still, the Hungarian GP mistakes were avoidable.

McLaren made an unnecessary mess of the Hungarian Grand Prix

Priestley thinks it was understandable for McLaren to try and protect any threat of undercut from Hamilton or Leclerc. Although, he believes that Norris would have been utterly disappointed having to give up the race win.

After all, he did gain the position on his teammate fairly due to his team’s strategy call, and then built a good lead with Piastri unable to catch him on fresh mediums. Piastri, on the other hand, had led the race from the start to show great pace and deserved to get the priority at the second pit stop too.

In the end, McLaren did end up gaining a huge chunk of points on Red Bull but they have inadvertently put some amount of strain between their two drivers.