Why did Lando Norris let Piastri pass in the Hungarian Grand Prix?

Lando Norris allowed himself to pass McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri three laps from the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix, on team orders.

There were three laps left to finish. Hungarian Grand Prix, Lando Norris He was comfortably six seconds ahead of his teammate. McLaren, Oscar Piastriwhen you are on a straight line Hugaroring He allowed the Australian to pass and gave him the victory.

Why this anti-climatic moment and something that is always criticised in Formula 1? Firstly, because it was Team Ranking Norris had to comply because it was the fairest thing to do, but he did it right up until the last minute, in fact, it took him 22 laps to do it.

The explanation for this has to do with fairness and McLaren’s handling of the race, but Norris was reluctant to hand back the position the team had given him to protect and preserve Woking’s 1-2 lead.

It all goes back to lap 44 of the 75-lap race, when Lewis Hamilton, on his new hard tyres, was two seconds faster than the McLaren who had the same type of tyre, but were 26 laps older.

Although Hamilton was fifth, with Piastri first and Norris second, he was 25 seconds behind Lando, meaning that if Oscar was given priority to enter the pits, as he should have been since he was the Grand Prix leader, Lando would likely suffer an undercut from Lewis.

The pit stops took between 22 and 25 seconds, and Lando Norris was at the limit, so they gave him priority, but with the idea that the advantage he would gain over Piastri, who would stay on the track on 2.5 seconds slower tyres, was that I would bring him back once the danger had passed.

The plan went perfectly, Lando Norris came in on lap 45 and came out like new socks, and as expected, he left in front of Hamilton and behind Piastri, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, who still had to pit.

On the next lap, Oscar Piastri took the 81 to the pits halfway through the race and came out second, almost two seconds behind his teammate who had benefited from an early stop.

But the idea was for Lando to push Hamilton away and then return Piastri’s compliment, but that’s where the goblin, the greed, the selfishness, the Gollum we all have inside, took over Norris. What if I got the win?

Radio messages tried to reassure Oscar Piastri, that in the end his teammate had to do the right thing, but messages from the team management tried to convince Lando Norris to return to his place.

It wasn’t easy, the team had to send a serious reminder to Lando Norris, on lap 66: if you want to win the championship, you’re going to need Oscar and the whole team, so do the right thing.

It was the voice of engineer William Joseph, but in fact it was Andrea Stella, the team’s chief executive, who spoke for McLaren.

Finally, at the start of lap 68, on the straight, Norris slowed down and let the Australian through, reluctantly, but he did.

The problem is that Norris’s resistance to complying with the order made the moment even more embarrassing. It might have been better to seek a double stop, yes, but one driver was too close to the other when Hamilton was chasing them.

With less than a second and a half between Piastri and Norris, achieving a ‘two-set’ was a big risk, as the team wanted a 1-2 result and this was the way to ensure it.

A driver has to be selfish, winners are generally selfish, so Lando Norris wanted to show that he could be faster, that maybe on the track, without team strategies, he could have beaten Oscar Piastri, that’s why he was 6 seconds ahead of him before the pitstop but it’s also true that Piastri didn’t put in more effort because he knew he shouldn’t take risks.

In the end, Norris obeyed, or left it, or almost took the candy out of his mouth, but Oscar gave it to him and so Piastri won his first Formula 1 Grand Prix, the harmony of the team was maintained, and justice was served…for now.