Karun Chandhok names two McLaren personnel who should have issued Lando Norris team order

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Lando Norris caused controversy when he appeared to ignore team orders at the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Briton was told several times by his McLaren engineer, Will Joseph, to let his teammate Oscar Piastri through after his team prioritised him during the pit stops.

This was to cover off any threat from Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen towards the end of the race, on the premise that he would hand the advantage back to Piastri who was searching for his first race win.

As Joseph desperately pleaded with Lando to “re-establish the order, at your convenience” the Briton ignored several instructions to slow down and protect his tyres before the team told him that it would be difficult if a Safety Car came out.

Karun Chandhok believes Norris’ race engineer should not have made the calls and instead named two other senior personnel members who should have issued the team orders when discussing the saga on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

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

Karun Chandhok believes Andrea Stella should have made Lando Norris team order

The team drew criticism for its handling of the situation due to the vagueness of the team radio messages.

Marc Priestley highlighted how former team boss Ron Dennis would have handled the situation, while Tiff Needell believes McLaren should have been more direct.

Although Joseph was made director of race engineering this year, Chandhok believes such an important call should have fallen to a more senior member of staff.

“Maybe this was something for either Randy Singh or for even Andrea Stella to make that call, rather than put Will Joseph in a position. Because Will, although he is in charge of the engineering group, ultimately he’s Lando’s guy,” said Chandhok.

“As a driver, you have to feel like your engineer is on your side and is backing you. That’s so important for you psychologically, to have your guy telling you, you have to give up the place, and in the end it was basically giving him this whole speech about how you’re gonna need the team and this, that.

“I felt for Will, because he should not have been put in that position. I felt that was something someone who’s not him should have been making that call.”

McLaren should have been more direct with team orders

Team orders have been part of F1 history since it began, with several examples of the years of them being used to influence a race result.

Felipe Massa’s race engineer, Rob Smedley, was used to deliver the “Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm you understood this message?” instruction at the 2010 German GP while he was leading.

Although that might seem as vague as what Norris was told, at the time team orders which interfered with a race result were banned. Ferrari circumvented this by merely pointing out that one driver was quicker than the other, although for many it was all too obvious what was going on.

Now that team orders are allowed, McLaren arguably could have been more direct instead of discussing tyre temperatures and demanding Norris give the position back rather than requesting.