The Hungarian Grand Prix was a difficult race for McLaren despite them securing a 1-2 finish. It’s because the team ordered Lando Norris to give up the race win for his teammate Oscar Piastri. This cost the Briton seven valuable points in the fight for the drivers’ championship. However, after Norris’ dominant showing in Singapore, Peter Windsor believes that McLaren would now make Piastri give up race wins to help Norris’ title bid.
“If we had the Hungary situation in reverse, for sure Oscar would slow down and let Lando pass. And as I said before I think if they’re running one two or two one and they’re way ahead of everybody else, probably Oscar would now give the win to Lando,” Windsor said in a conversation with F1 YouTuber Cameron.
“I put myself in his shoes… I had to do what was right”
A bittersweet P2 for Lando Norris after surrendering the win to team mate Oscar Piastri#F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/ApwgJoKaG4
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 21, 2024
The Briton stamped his authority in Singapore winning by a dominant margin of 21 seconds, which was at times over 25 seconds in the middle phase of the race. In Budapest, Norris was in a similar situation after the second pitstop. However, because Piastri had led since the first lap, McLaren told him to make way for the Aussie.
They told him that he would need Piastri’s help if he wanted to win the championship. However, McLaren continued to avoid using team orders maintaining that both their drivers had the number one status.
This again cost Norris a few valuable points in the Italian Grand Prix when McLaren chose not to swap the two (to help Norris score three extra points) in the guise of following the ‘papaya rules’.
Ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Woking squad decided to change their approach to start prioritizing Norris and help his championship bid. However, right after that, Norris had a disastrous qualifying in Baku which eventually led to Piastri winning the race.
Top step of the podium for Oscar Piastri in Baku #F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/qHEUBzG5lv
— FIA (@fia) September 15, 2024
With just six more races to go in the season, it’s now more important than ever for McLaren to help the #4 driver in any way they can. Max Verstappen only needs to finish P2 in every race even if Norris wins all of them to win a fourth consecutive championship.
So, Piastri now has to play a crucial role in taking away as many points from Verstappen as he can to help his team win both championships in 2024.
