Lando Norris admitted he considered ignoring the team orders to surrender victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver was ordered multiple times on the team radio to let team-mate Oscar Piastri through to take the lead of the race. Norris eventually slowed down to let the Australian by as he claimed his maiden Grand Prix victory.
Norris had been told by his team to hand back the lead of the race he had gained through a pit-stop strategy 17 laps before the chequered flag that saw him undercut Piastri into first place. The Briton had started on pole position but had lost the lead to his team-mate at the first corner of the opening lap.
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After repeatedly resisting the order, Norris eventually handed the lead to Piastri with three laps to go as he slowed down on the main straight. The decision from McLaren meant Norris missed out on seven extra points in his battle to challenge Max Verstappen for the drivers’ championship.
The three-time world champion endured a rage-filled afternoon to finish in 5th place after making contact with Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps to collect just 10 points from the race. Norris admitted in his post-race interviews that he had considered defying McLaren to go on and claim victory. “Things are always going to go through your mind because, you know, you’ve got to be selfish in this sport at times,” he said.
What did you make of McLaren’s team orders? Let us know in the comments section.
(Image: Formula 1 via Getty Images)
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“You’ve got to think of yourself. That’s priority number one, think of yourself. I’m also a team player, so my mind was going pretty crazy at the time. I know what we’ve done in the past. Oscar’s helped me plenty of times. But this isn’t that. I was put into a position and we were undoing it.
“I know a lot of people are going to say the gap between me and Max is pretty big but if Red Bull and Max make the mistakes they did today and we continue to improve and have weekends like this, we can turn it around.
“It is still optimistic and a big goal to say I can close 70 points in half a season, and seven points I give away… it crosses your mind. So it was not easy. But I also understood the situation I was in and I was quite confident that by the last lap I would have done it.”
Norris did concede that he felt he didn’t deserve to win the race after he was manufactured into the lead through the pit strategy. “I didn’t deserve to win the race. Simple as that. The fact I was in that position was incorrect,” he added.
“If Oscar’s led the whole race, it’s not fair, and I don’t think that’s how it should work, that he should just let me pass for me to win because I’m fighting for a championship. I didn’t give up the race win. I lost it off the line.”