Jacques Villeneuve shares the ‘big issue’ Lando Norris now has with McLaren after Hungarian GP

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McLaren’s best result since the 2021 Italian Grand Prix was slightly overshadowed by the radio messages broadcast to the world towards the end of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were absolutely superb throughout the Hungarian GP race weekend.

They were only split by two-hundredths of a second in qualifying to secure a front-row lockout and demote Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen to third.

That’s despite Verstappen running a newly upgraded Red Bull and the advantage the team have lost to McLaren in recent races remains despite their best efforts.

Piastri took the lead heading into the first corner and Norris was eventually running behind him after Verstappen was told by his team to give the place back to him after overtaking the Brit off the track at the first corner.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Verstappen was incredibly frustrated throughout the race and ended up losing places to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc due to a poor strategy.

At the front of the race, Piastri looked set to deliver a famous one-two for McLaren and comfortably take his maiden Grand Prix victory.

However, strategy was the key word throughout the race in Hungary and played its part in an awkward end to the race for McLaren.

Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve was speaking on his Instagram account in the aftermath of the race and delivered his verdict on how McLaren dealt with the situation.

In particular, Villeneuve highlighted one key issue he spotted that could impact the rest of Lando Norris’s season.

The young Brit is Verstappen’s closest rival in the Drivers’ Championship and slowly narrowing the gap.

However, he may need to be much more ruthless if he’s going to challenge a driver who wouldn’t think twice about stealing a win away from his teammate if it came to it.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Lando Norris’ life outside F1 from height and parents to celebration

Jacques Villeneuve highlights the ‘big issue’ Lando Norris is facing at McLaren

Reflecting on the race, Villeneuve said: “What a race! The action on the track obviously was quite aggressive.

“But then socially, mentally, the radio messages, both McLaren and Red Bull at some point Verstappen was even berated by his engineer saying that the conversation was becoming childish.

“He was put in his place and we saw it the way that he drove as well. You could see the frustration and then McLaren took a big risk with the pit-stop strategy.

“They put Lando in front and then Lando at that point didn’t want to let Piastri by, he was quicker and it took him a long, long time to listen to the team orders, so there’ll be some heavy discussions later.

“The big issue for McLaren is imagine Lando finishing six or seven points behind Verstappen at the end of the season! He could win this championship and that might cost him to win the championship, that would be terrible for the team.”

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Lando Norris’s 2024 season is a collection of what-ifs after Hungarian GP disappointment

The team dynamic at McLaren has been vital throughout the season and Piastri and Norris have worked very well together up to this point and Norris has since sent Piastri a message after the race.

Norris did eventually yield and if the roles are reversed at any point throughout the rest of the campaign, you can expect the 24-year-old to be on the team radio straight away to remind McLaren of his sacrifice at the Hungaroring.

However, it should have been another victory for Norris were it not for a slightly sluggish getaway off the grid.

After qualifying on pole position, it’s another opportunity that’s passed Norris by and if he’s not got the killer instinct to win a race on Sunday that he potentially didn’t deserve as Villeneuve suggested, then he needs to make sure any victory is beyond doubt before needing some slightly awkward team strategy calls.

He’s now finished 2^nd on five separate occasions this season and he could look back on each race and wonder whether he should have been on the top step of the podium.

Take into account his retirement in Austria when he made contact with Verstappen and the title race should be much closer than it currently is.