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Amid all the angst on the McLaren pitwall during the closing stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix, eventual winner Oscar Piastri kept arguably the coolest head as he waited patiently for a maiden Formula 1 grand prix victory to be passed back into his hands.
"The longer we leave this the riskier it gets," was as close as he got to breaking focus on the team radio with five laps to go, as team-mate Lando Norris showed little sign of handing back a lead that he'd inherited through McLaren's offset pitstop timings.
Norris did eventually cede the position with three laps remaining, but prior to that had pleaded his case for staying ahead at length over his own intercom.
Part of Norris's rationale was that he was actually the faster McLaren driver - he'd caught up to Piastri in the second stint, and then reeled off significantly faster laps as he stretched away from Piastri.
But was that actually the case?
That was an area of debate on the latest post-race episode of The Race F1 Podcast.
The argument in Norris's favour
"I’m going to caveat this by saying Oscar Piastri has been super impressive in his time in Formula 1 so far," said Valentin Khorounzhiy.
"He's been an incredible signing for McLaren. He’s going from strength to strength.
“There’s clear development going on there and the pace was already there to begin with. And on the balance of his efforts in what has been a really good car, he has earned this win.
"But I have to admit that my impression throughout the race, an impression conditioned by prior knowledge, was that the faster car was Norris's, and that in the first and second stint he was constrained.
"OK, Piastri was pulling out at the start of the second stint and at the start of the first stint, but then Piastri in doing so made a mistake [he had a big moment at Turn 11].
“That brought Norris close enough into dirty air where Norris stayed fairly comfortably for the remainder of that stint. And then when Norris had clean air, he vanished even with a tyre offset.
"It's slightly annoying, because it’s not that the best, fastest driver always has to win the race. You can talk about deserving to win but that doesn’t matter so much. I think Norris was faster on Sunday."
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The argument against Norris
"The point I would contend with on Norris versus Piastri, especially in that final stint, is you had one driver adhering to the team's requests to bring in the tyres carefully, then you had another driver who was very clearly not doing that and who was interested in proving a point and was going to build that gap as much as possible," said Scott Mitchell-Malm.
"That felt like that was what was going on to me. Once you’ve done that and the dynamics of the stint are kind of set, that final stint becomes quite tricky to judge.
"I think Norris was the faster driver in the final stint but you could easily argue that Piastri was managing the tyres in the first stint and still built a nice gap. He was very impressive there."
Where Piastri has undoubtedly improved
When McLaren was just at the start of its return to being a force at the front of the F1 field in Hungary last year, it was again Piastri who got the better start (up from fourth on the grid to third on that occasion) to head Norris in the early stages.
But his pace faded badly late on in a high-degradation race, as he admitted to struggling with tyre management - one of the lingering question marks levelled at the 23-year-old now he's in his second season. Piastri eventually finished fifth that day, nearly half a minute behind third-placed Norris.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella even cited that example after Piastri's 2024 Hungaroring triumph, saying last year's race was "a bit of a turning point" where McLaren made tyre management its main priority for Piastri's development.
And there was agreement among the podcast panel that those efforts have had an impact.
"I think some damage did exacerbate Piastri’s struggles relative to Norris, but he was nowhere compared to Norris at this race 12 months ago," said Mitchell-Malm. "It shows how much he has come on in that tyre management side."
"This part of the game is what comes on the latest, this stint management; it's what takes longest to set in, it's what you can’t really shortcut, it's experience," added Khorounzhiy.
"He’s getting better all the time and he was obviously better than last year and I think better than at the start of the season.
"I think Norris still has more, and that’s what makes this result a little complicated in my head.
“But I love it for Oscar, he deserves it."
