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“Your car was so quick,” said third-place finisher Lewis Hamilton in the green room to the Hungarian Grand Prix runner-up Lando Norris.
It seemed to pull Lando out of his conflicted torment at having pulled aside, as instructed, to allow McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri through for his first grand prix victory.
“You had a quick car for years,” Norris fired back, smiling. “You can’t complain.”
“I wasn’t complaining,” protested Hamilton. “Just congratulating you.”
Lewis was right, though. The McLaren was a rocket ship, albeit within the context of a race around a track at which everyone has to heavily manage their tyres. “Yes,” said Norris later. “That’s the first time this year where I can confidently say we were quickest. We’ve maybe been the quickest on one other occasion but this was the first time definitely, no question.”
A car which could sew up the front row and with balance such that it controlled the rear tyre degradation here better than any other gave McLaren the best race pace too.
A top car with two top drivers inevitably switches the pressure from external to internal. History is littered with examples: Jones/Reutemann, Mansell/Piquet, Prost/Senna, Hamilton/Alonso, Vettel/Webber. Drivers fighting for the sport’s biggest prize from within the same team and the uncomfortable conflict it brings between personal ambition and that of the team. It prises that fault line apart and can rupture everything.
So Mark Webber, Piastri’s manager would have very well understood the situation his man was facing as Norris seemed to be considering not giving back a lead which had been gifted him through calling him in two laps earlier than Piastri for the second pit stops. It was very similar to Webber’s infamous Multi 21 incident with Vettel, Malaysia 2013.
On that occasion, Vettel decided personal ambition overruled team harmony and found a way of rationalising why what had previously been agreed was no longer valid.
That’s the struggle that Norris was facing. All those missed opportunities of victories recently, still only one on the board; they’ve seemed so tantalisingly close but so near-impossible to deliver. Now here he was, in the lead and pulling away, and it was feeling so easy to win. Except he was being asked to surrender it to a team-mate. There were many ways of rationalising why he shouldn’t - and he was trying them all out over the team radio as he wrestled with his conscience.
When his race engineer Will Joseph made the request to swap, it was on the rationale that Norris had only been pitted first to cover off any Hamilton undercut threat and with that now accomplished, they should revert to how it had been from the start, when Piastri had forged ahead down his inside into Turn 1.
Rationalisation attempt #1: you (the team) put me in the lead. It’s not my fault.
Lando Norris: “You should have boxed him first, as the leader.”
Will Joseph: “Doesn’t matter.” (ie, the request still stood.)
Rationalisation #2: this might lose us the world title.
LN: “It does to me, maybe.”
Then:
WJ: “Lando, we’re not happy with this level of tyre saving, with 22 laps to go,” (ie slow down, Piastri cannot close the gap).
Silence.
WJ: “Radio check Lando.”
LN: “Yes, loud and clear.”
WJ: “OK then. Save the tyres please.”
Several more pleas from Joseph for Norris to back off followed, as the gap to Piastri grew.
Rationalisation #3: I was faster.
LN: “I would have stayed out longer. I caught him up.”
Rationalisation #4: “OK then, tell him to catch up.”
That was said in the knowledge that Norris had stretched out his lead to over four seconds now, with the laps counting down.
WJ: “Lando, he can’t catch you up. You’ve proved your point.”
Joseph was soon channelling team boss Andrea Stella’s words. It was Joseph’s voice but Stella was unmistakably behind them. “Just remember every single Sunday morning meeting we have…”
And:
WJ: “Lando, five laps to go. The way to win a championship is with the team. You are going to need the team. You are going to need Oscar.”
Silence.
With three laps to go it ceased being a discussion and became a team order. “If there is a safety car it makes things very awkward. Please. Do it. Now.”
So Piastri’s right of passage was made, three laps from the end.
That final stint gave a misleading picture. He didn’t manage the first couple of laps on the new rubber as well as he might have, quite possibly alarmed by the gap Norris had built up already. Whoever was ahead in clean air had better pace - as Piastri had proved up until the second stops. Before running wide on lap 33 he’d built up a gap of over four seconds, well out of anyone’s undercut range. But that incident cost him a chunk of time. Had he not made the mistake, Norris’s earlier stop would never have sprung him past.
But Piastri had been reassured even before the stops happened that the positions would revert. Lando would pit first to cover off any Hamilton undercut. Piastri would stay out longer to cover off Verstappen (minimising the tyre offset to the Red Bull in the last stint). Neither were likely threats; McLaren was just playing it safe. Playing safe can be a dangerous thing to do when you’re dealing with racing drivers with their helmets on.
Outside the car, they are invariably very reasonable and rational. The competitive animal inside the isolation of a cockpit can be totally different.
Outside the car, Norris acknowledged that he didn’t deserve the win, that on merit it was Piastri’s. “I lost it at the start,” he said. “I didn’t give up the race win. I lost it off the line. I was boxed first and naturally that’s always going to give you the undercut. The team gave me that and I gave it back.
“It’s always going to go through your mind [not to give it back]. You’ve got to be selfish in this sport sometimes. Priority #1 is think of yourself. I’m also a team player and my mind was going pretty crazy at the time...it’s not my fault I was leading the race. They should’ve boxed Oscar first and we wouldn’t even been having this discussion. Oscar did an amazing job, he got me off the line.”
Yes, he did. With a resolute commitment to the gap on the inside, even as Norris was swerving right to dissuade him. It was committed but trust was part of it too. He did a beautiful job on the brakes and in the Turn 1 positioning of his car with Norris to his left and Verstappen to the left of them both, making in three-abreast.
Verstappen anticipated being run out wide by Norris even though Lando had kept as far over as was possible without hitting Piastri. That second position had not been decided as Verstappen left the track and the Red Bull came out ahead only because of the greater speed it could carry on the less acute angle. He was advised to give the place back and his niggling irritation at that just set the tone for his mood for the rest of the day. One which was not improved by the team making what he felt were poor calls on his pitstop timings.
Norris was actually jumped out of Turn 1 by Hamilton too but then as Verstappen ran the Mercedes out wide through the exit of Turn 2, so Norris was able to scramble back ahead - and thus be in place for Verstappen to give the place back a couple of laps later. By the time that was all sorted, Piastri was 2.3s up the road. It looked like that was game set and match for McLaren, 1-2 and pulling away as neither Verstappen nor Hamilton had their pace.
In fact Verstappen’s aggressive first few laps seemed to hurt his tyres - as Hamilton was able to come back at him in a Mercedes which was otherwise a couple of tenths off a Red Bull's pace, with Leclerc’s Ferrari sniffing about not too far behind either.
Verstappen’s fight was no longer with the McLarens, but a losing one with Hamilton and Leclerc. Mercedes undercut Hamilton ahead, Verstappen stayed out long (too long according to Max) and then launched a high-energy attack on the Mercedes which got him past briefly before he ran off the road at Turn 2, allowing Hamilton back ahead. A few curse words were issued about the car’s understeer.
It was a similar story up to the second stops: Hamilton (and Leclerc) in early, Verstappen staying out nine laps longer, coming out behind them and launching an attack. One which initially got him past Leclerc but which took him into flight after contact with Hamilton after he locked up and they interlocked wheels. Leclerc repassed as Verstappen was rejoining. That was how an ill-tempered Max finished fifth on a hot day in Hungary, just ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
From near the back, Sergio Perez and George Russell lost a lot of time in a long DRS train in their first stint but recovered well to take seventh and eighth respectively.
Perez’s race pace in clear air was much the same as Verstappen’s and his strategy proved more effective than that of Russell, who was initially ahead. Yuki Tsunoda was the sole one-stopper and used the track position this bought to prevail over Lance Stroll for ninth.
Amid all the tension and aggression, the calmest person in the whole place seemed to be Piastri.
Unflustered, fast and tough. As Stella said afterwards, “Oscar is the youngest but wisest member of our team.” He won the race but he maybe won more than just that. A great future surely awaits.
