Piastri makes Norris admission: “I would have done the same thing”

Piastri claimed his first F1 race win at the Hungaroring, heading Norris in a McLaren one-two.

The Australian took the lead of the race at the first corner and remained in control until the final round of stops, when the team employed strategy to fend off the threat posed by third-placed Lewis Hamilton.

That resulted in Norris pitting ahead of his team-mate, undercutting the Australian and taking the lead – even extending his advantage before slowing dramatically to allow Piastri through with three laps remaining.

While the timing of Norris handing back the lead caused tension on the pit wall, and led to awkward questions of the team, Piastri empathised with his team-mate.

“We both know that, at the end of the day, we’re racing for the team,” Piastri told selected Australian media, including Speedcafe.

“With the last pitstop, if we were genuinely racing each other, then the strategies would have been very different.

“I would have done the same thing as what Lando did, in giving him the position back.

“I fully understand; he’s a racing driver, so am I, when you’re in the lead of a race it’s not a nice thing to have the let it back through,” he added.

“But we are racing for the team and certain decisions were made on the basis that we’re racing for the team and securing a one-two.

“The end result was the same and would have been reciprocated the other way, had we been the other way around.”

Speaking after Sunday’s race, team principal Andrea Stella highlighted that a key aspect of McLaren’s culture is to place the team above the individual.

On different strategies at his home grand prix in Melbourne, Piastri moved aside for the fresher booted Norris.

In Miami, he missed out on the full upgrade package which Norris had available and helped deliver him victory.

At the British Grand Prix, he was strategically compromised in a move that arguably cost him a chance of a maiden grand prix win.

Ironically, pitting Norris to cover off Hamilton in Hungary, was evidence of a lesson learned from the Bahrain Grand Prix.

“First and foremost, I’m a McLaren Racing driver,” Piastri explained.

“I’m not racing for Oscar Piastri Racing, I’m racing for McLaren. That’s always the big picture.

“There’s 1000s more people behind me and behind Lando as well.

”The team orders go both ways,” he continued.

“We’re very open, very honest about it. And, you know, I think in basically all situations, it’s a very sensible way of going racing.

“The first priority from the weekend was to secure the one-two for the team, and that’s what we did.”

Post-race, Norris conceded he didn’t deserve to win, and that he was always confident he’d hand the lead back to Piastri.

“Of course, I’m going to just question it and challenge it, and that’s what I did,” Norris said of the team order.

“I was going to wait until the last lap, the last corner. But then they said if there was a Safety Car all of a sudden, and I couldn’t let Oscar go through, then it would have made me look like a bit of an idiot.

“Then I was like, ‘yeah, it’s fair point’.

“You can make what you will of what you hear and what you think you know and that kind of stuff,” he added.

“But I know that I always was going to give it back unless they changed their mind on what they were saying. And they didn’t. So all good.”

Piastri and Norris travelled back from the Hungarian GP together, the Australian revealing they stopped off at a McDonald’s after their flight home was delayed.