With two laps to go in the Hungarian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri jinked his car to the inside of Turn 1 and Lando Norris just took the corner as if there was nothing but another round.
Piastri was behind and tried to take the victory after he closed his one -off teammate. The imprisonment that followed saw the pair dangerously close to contact, but there was no touch, and apart from a warning from Piastri’s racing engineer Tom Stallard, it played.
“Remember how we are going to race,” said Stallard.
That was a reference to McLaren who tried to ensure the drivers to limit the risk level with which they try to put together, where team head Andrea Stella actually praised the situation in which the two drivers actually processed the situation.
“If you have two great drivers, such as Lando and Oscar, who race for a victory in a Formula 1 Grand Prix and racing for the driver’s championship, it will always be very close,” Stella said.
“That was firm racing; it was at the same time racing. It was certainly within our principles. We had a bit of a lock-up with Oscar, but at the same time Lando left some space because he knew that Oscar would have been at the limit of brakes.
“We continue to be very proud of how Lando and Oscar will race. I think this is a great way to honor Formula 1 racing. These are the values of McLaren.
“Hopefully it will be a matter between the two McLaren-driver even when we saw that Ferrari was in the competition for the victory for two-thirds of the race [today] – And I think we have a very entertaining and interesting last part of the season. “
McLaren who allowed a race to develop in the way it did, was entertainment, in which Norris gambled on a one-stop strategy stuck in fourth place during the first Stint of the race. In the meantime, Piastri was a tweetop and it seemed his side of the garage at that stage aimed at Charles Leclerc.
“I think we should try to do something to beat Leclerc, because it was not clear that we just had enough pace to blow him by and to win that way,” Piastri said about his strategy. “We tried something. Was it right in the end? I don’t know, but it is always much easier if you are the car behind to take that risk.
“There was virtually nothing to lose for Lando by trying a one-stop race. For myself there was possible. We look back and see if there was something that we should have done differently, but a two-top was always the plan for the race, so it was not even really discussed about doing a one-stop. It was certainly a gamble.
“In the race I was asked about it. Very difficult to know about the cockpit what’s going on, to be the best to do. As I said, if you’re behind the car, your risk one ratio is always much different, so that’s always.
“Could we have matched Lando? That is, I think, the question that I don’t have the answer to. I think that’s the only thing. We also wanted to try to win the race, and the best way to defeat Lando is to try to win the race. That was clearly an intention, but I think we’re certainly analyzing if there was something that was there.”
It was worth trying and he still kept it clean. That’s what it’s all about. Joe Portlock/Getty Images
From the point of view of Norris, the strategie cards fell on its way, but the implementation still had to be right. It was not lucky that he gave the victory, even if there was any fortune for the fact that he was in fifth place and was supported in a corner where he had to try something else to at least get a job position against George Russell.
“I think it’s one of the first I won in this way,” Norris said afterwards. “I have not won many races, so most circumstances are still new, but I think it is the first where it is a full alternative strategy that gives myself that chance, worked out.
“There have been a few others where a long time in the first Stint – Miami – get the Safety Car, things like that helped me of a lucky side. Nowadays that wasn’t really, so I think I think [it’s] the most rewarding [from a ‘let’s try to do something different’ point of view] And it works, what a good thing was.
“It is a difficult strategy to do, but it succeeded. That is the most important thing. To be honest, I didn’t really think it would work for the most of that second stint, but with every round I got a little more confidence that it would be getting closer and closer.”
Closing was. Piastri’s attitude after the race suggested that he was not difficult to feel because of the point of view of a team, nor did he have problems with the reports about the way the two should race on each other in the final phase.
To this end, McLaren is walking the walk and it pays off so far. It has maintained that it will enable its drivers to race, and knows that this will lead to controversial moments at certain times.
A well-timed comment from CEO Zak Brown Pre-Race suggested that the two drivers are less likely to be frustrated about how each other’s races end up because of the openness with which they are treated, and in the same way that collaboration creates the environment to enable them to sort it on the circuit between themselves.
Perhaps the best combination of teammates in recent memory? Zak Brown thinks so. Sam Bloxham/Getty images
“I don’t think they will fall well … Because of the communication, trust and respect we all have, and they have for each other,” said Brown. “I think we are lucky to have the two personalities we have.
“We love the challenge. I look forward to racing on top of each other, which we saw in Austria and Silverstone. We like it. It is not the elephant in the room; we talk about it. We meet each other every Sunday morning after we have seen how qualifying goes. They know each other’s strategy. We are completely transparent.
“I said both of them individually, in Opportunity Windows,” Has your teammate ever done anything to take you? ” ‘Never.’ That’s what they both said.
“There is competitive brewing, but we don’t feel any tension. While the championship is building, I am sure the tension will grow, but like like [the collision in] Montreal, I’m glad we got it out of the way because it was a non-event. Lando owned it. Oscar understood. It was a mistake.
“We fully expect them to change paint again at some point. I am confident that it will not be intentional, where you will get into trouble. A man will be a brake, to lock a wet circuit … They will have racing incidents here at McLaren here. We know that. We are not afraid of.
“I am sure they will never run each other off the track, and that is where you get into bad blood. They are free to race. They are free to race. There are rules around our racing, what your teammate respects. They know that.
“Sitting in the Debriefs team, listening to them … You know, we laugh at some things back when I was racing – which was not entirely at this level – the S *** that we have done to each other as teammates … we didn’t see anything.
“We are delighted to see them racing, and if something is wrong, we will deal with it … It seems to look from outside, when you have seen fights between other teammates, you have seen it a bit brewing and you are going a bit,” are they jumped on it, or did they just let go? ” We won’t.
Hungary was another example where tension did not seem to build, despite the main car on the circuit that finished in the second place of his teammate. It seems like an impossible task to keep both drivers happy for much longer in such a struggle, but so far McLaren has retained his approach and having it work.
#McLaren #succeeds #test #Racer