McLaren defends Hungary F1 strategy after Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris fume over radio

McLaren Formula 1 team principal Andrea Stella has defended the strategy calls that initially frustrated Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri during the Hungarian Grand Prix. 

Piastri led for most of the first half of the race but was displeased when McLaren’s decision to pit him first put him into lapped traffic, leading to a costly collision with Williams driver Carlos Sainz. 

The Australian fumed over team radio in a series of uncharacteristically angry and sarcastic messages towards his team, before later retiring from second place with a gearbox failure. 

McLaren boss Stella insisted Piastri’s frustration in the heat of the moment was justified. 

“Immediately after the race, Oscar clarified that his comment was a comment in anger at what happened in terms of how the race unfolded,” Stella said. 

“It's absolutely understandable that when you lead the race for almost half and then you see yourself losing the lead because of an episode with a backmarker, you may have a moment and make a comment in anger, but there's absolutely no problem from this point of view.”

After the race, Piastri stressed he had no issue with McLaren’s strategy decisions. 

"I was crashed into by Carlos and, in the moment, I was hoping maybe they would not pit Lando because of that incident to at least give me the chance to stay in the lead but I think that's not very reasonable,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1. 

"I was just more very upset in the moment about what had happened. I think the timing of my pit stop was fine, we wanted to beat Lewis and that's what we needed to do to.”

McLaren attempted to give Piastri strategic priority as its lead driver on track but the threat from Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton ultimately forced the team’s hand. 

"If you look at the race trace, you will see that when Hamilton pits, he is in condition to undercut the two McLarens, so we needed to respond,” Stella explained. 

"Because if that was the right way to take the cars to victory, we needed to have a McLaren in a position of leading that way ahead of Hamilton. So, it was either Oscar or Lando. Oscar was in the lead, and we thought that he was the right car to stop for that. And then for Lando, this opened up a different strategy.

"So, it's not like you are deviating because you are thinking about Oscar and Lando. You are deviating because we needed to avoid that the Ferrari could take the lead of the race.

"I think then what follows has to do with the pace difference because Lando on used tyres was not much slower than the cars on new tyres. And it's there that he gained the victory today.

"So, I think it's a victory on pace, and Lando had the opportunity to use it, but not because the team kind of wanted to create it. The team needed to cover Hamilton.”

Norris was also left frustrated with his team. After losing the lead to Piastri at the start when he ran wide at Turn 2, Norris was clearly the faster McLaren but became stuck running in his team-mate’s dirty air. 

That led to several pleas from Norris to be stopped first, but McLaren denied the world champion’s request. The Briton would go on to claim a resounding first victory of the 2026 season.  

"When you are at the pit wall, you obviously constantly evaluate all the options," Stella added. "And you look at that from different angles. You look at that from making sure that you can achieve a victory in a race like that.

"You can look at what's the way to score as many points for the team. But there's also a way, which is being consistent with the way we go racing.

"And I think up until the time Oscar pitted, Oscar had gained the lead in a fair manner in corner one, with the action in corner one and two, so he deserved an opportunity to try and win the race.

"In other tracks, probably, Lando might have overtaken Oscar. But in this case, it's difficult, you need a large pace advantage here to be able to do so.

"So, we were happy to give Oscar the opportunity to fight for the win. And then, at the same time, making sure that we were protecting the way we go racing. So, that's the approach we adopted. Obviously, it's always quite marginal. There's many options that you can consider.

"But I think today was a well-executed race from a racing principles point of view. And I have to thank Oscar and Lando, because it would not be possible to do so without two drivers that accept and support our way of going racing."