{"id":41845,"date":"2025-08-04T02:59:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/41845\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T02:59:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T02:59:15","slug":"verdict-on-oscar-piastri-and-lando-norris-strategy-calls-by-mclaren-reaction-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/41845\/","title":{"rendered":"Verdict on Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris strategy calls by McLaren, reaction, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hungary once again played scene to McLaren controversy on Sunday as divergent strategies saw Lando Norris recover from a poor start to clinch victory and, crucially, gain further ground on Oscar Piastri<\/a> in the 2025 F1 title race.<\/p>\n

This was not the drama of 2024, where Norris furiously rejected a team order to allow Piastri through, before eventually ceding to McLaren\u2019s increasingly desperate pleas over team radio. <\/p>\n

But the return to Hungary 12 months on saw the spotlight shine brightly on McLaren anyway, this time with questions over whether it was Piastri who was unfairly dealt with by the team on his way to second-place. <\/p>\n

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Piastri & Norris INCHES from colliding! | 00:48<\/p>\n

Piastri held onto second on the opening lap while Norris found himself out of position and back in fifth having narrowly failed to overtake the Australian.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That opened the door to an alternative strategy for the Briton \u2014 a one-stop on hard tyres which was something of a Hail Mary, but one which Norris was willing to take. <\/p>\n

Piastri, meanwhile, was locked into a two-stop strategy, ostensibly to fight with Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc for the win despite the threat of Norris holding front position on a narrow track. <\/p>\n

Ultimately, without team orders, Piastri was put in a position where he would have to overtake Norris \u2014 and he ran out of time do so, coming second by less than one second having failed to make a move stick on the penultimate lap.<\/p>\n

Piastri remained calm and positive after the race. But former driver and Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle said that he had reason to be angry with how the race shook out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOscar will be seething with that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/p>\n

Strategy gamble that burned Piastri explained\u2026 and what it means for title race \u2014 Talking Pts<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Background isn\u2019t great\u2019:<\/a>Stunning Hamilton reply ignites Ferrari split talk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019ll be seething\u2019: McLaren call burns Piastri as title blow lands after near-disaster<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Not sure that was right\u2019: Piastri to seek answers over costly McLaren gamble<\/a><\/p>\n

McLaren call costs Piastri Hungary win | 02:38<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were busy strategising to beat Leclerc. Norris didn\u2019t have that problem as he was out of the picture and came in 13 laps later and changed strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great irony is by not being in that fight with the Ferrari at the front they had more freedom and took it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he still had to deliver that pace for that amount of time on those tyres.<\/p>\n

\u201cOscar will be asking \u2018why didn\u2019t we do that? Why have we two-stopped and been beaten by our teammate who one-stopped?\u2019\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The Race\u2019s<\/a> Valentin Khorounzhiy, however, suggested the reality of the strategy call was far more brutal on Piastri, who \u201cobviously got screwed\u201d by the team.<\/p>\n

Khorounzhiy said that Piastri was \u201csmart enough not to make a big stink out\u201d of the result, but that it was clear he was dudded since Norris\u2019 strategy had launched him from a distant fifth. <\/p>\n

Deflated Lewis says ‘a lot’ is going on | 00:51<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strategy he (Norris) ended up saddled with – which, it bears saying, I am 100 per cent sure was through race circumstance – was demonstrably better than Piastri\u2019s, whose race fell victim to that early stop targeting a Leclerc undercut,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorris might have been marginally the faster driver here but he won because he qualified behind. And it\u2019s all well and good to say McLaren turned a 2-3 (even 2-4) into a 1-2 here, but at a certain part of the season that doesn\u2019t matter to your drivers and you have to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also questioned some communication on the McLaren pit wall, adding: \u201cIt was very strange that race engineer Tom Stallard was asking Piastri whether he wanted to prioritise beating Leclerc or beating Norris; like, what do you think?\u201d <\/p>\n

His colleague at The Race Scott Mitchell-Malm floated that given Piastri was merely a victim of his own success in the race\u2019s early stages relative to Norris, that the lack of team orders is a consideration worth discussion. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel for Piastri … Piastri deserved this win, and in a straight fight would have won it,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be interesting in the post-race analysis if there was an alternative route to victory that didn\u2019t involve just removing Norris from the picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the question I suppose is should McLaren have got involved like last year and forced a position swap?\u201d <\/p>\n

‘**** turned in on me!’ Russell fumes | 01:43<\/p>\n

The difficulty for Piastri is that when locked in a battle at the front of the race, taking a one-stop strategy would\u2019ve made little sense as opposed to trying to undercut Leclerc for the race lead and pulling away. Once the first stop was made early, it left Piastri with little strategic flexibility. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a point that Sky Sports\u2019 strategy analyst and former strategy engineer for Aston Martin, Bernie Collins, made post-race. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, she said that even how McLaren executed Piastri\u2019s two-stop strategy was worthy of extra investigation in team meetings. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there is a lot more he could\u2019ve done,\u201d she said of Piastri.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019ll be questions to be asked, should they have done the last stop (of Piastri\u2019s two stops) a little later? Could that have given them more of a tyre delta to Norris? They\u2019ll look at what the traffic looked like \u2014 I think his (Piastri\u2019s) point is valid on the traffic potentially on the two-stop hurting you a little bit.<\/p>\n

“Why didn’t you just T-Bone him?” | 01:18<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be stuff they review. The first is the one stop versus the two-stop (decision), and the second thing is if the second stop could\u2019ve been a bit later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collins added that Piastri did not appear to be angry over how the race unfolded, despite being outgunned by the other half of McLaren\u2019s pit wall. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really interesting listening to his team radio at the end of the race. He really was quite positive so I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s outwardly to encourage the team. He thanked them for the strategy… he was really positive,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungary once again played scene to McLaren controversy on Sunday as divergent strategies saw Lando Norris recover from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,689,31018,33127,13275,36380,36768,11301,2057,817,813,816,3738,3875,19076,939,1737,22298,36778,677,25593,36769,2114,36780,36776,36385,2643,36777,85,36774,36779,36770,21769,36775,31283,36772,36232,36773,36244,36771],"class_list":["post-41845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bernie-collins","tag-budapest","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-choice-words","tag-consideration-worth-discussion","tag-eastern-europe","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fox-sports","tag-george-russell","tag-hail-mary","tag-hungary","tag-lando-norris","tag-martin-brundle","tag-move-stick","tag-oceania","tag-penultimate-lap","tag-piastri-norris-inches","tag-pit-wall","tag-position-swap","tag-race-shook","tag-reply-ignites","tag-sky-sports","tag-split-talk","tag-sports","tag-spotlight-shine","tag-stages-relative","tag-strategy-analyst","tag-strategy-calls","tag-team-meetings","tag-team-orders","tag-team-radio","tag-tom-stallard","tag-two-stop-hurting","tag-two-stop-strategy","tag-tyre-delta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}