Lando Norris shares what happened in ‘crucial’ meeting with McLaren bosses after Hungarian GP

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McLaren made some unwanted headlines at the Hungarian Grand Prix last month when they ordered Lando Norris to cede the win to Oscar Piastri. It was one of the most heavily-publicised stories in the first half of the 2024 season.

In the team’s eyes, Piastri deserved the victory. He’d overtaken polesitter Norris with an aggressive but clean move at the first corner, and controlled the race from there.

The two cars were running one-two, but third-place Lewis Hamilton was still a factor in their thinking. When Hamilton pitted, McLaren opted to bring Norris in first, subverting the normal order.

That was because they wanted to guard against any threat of an undercut from behind. But predictably, given that Norris had the advantage of fresh rubber, Piastri fell behind his teammate by the time he pitted.

Then came the instruction from the pit wall. Norris protested at first, demanding that Piastri close up to him before he moved over.

He also indicated that he was thinking about the championship – he’s the nearest challenger to Max Verstappen – and even forced the team to conduct a radio check after falling silent. Eventually, he slowed down on the pit straight to let Piastri through.

Lando Norris says McLaren reached ‘very quick’ resolution to Hungary issue

Norris willingly sacrificed seven points by accepting the team orders. He needed to maximise his tally if he was to have any chance of putting pressure on Verstappen.

McLaren, meanwhile, clearly feared that the Englishman was about to upset the harmony in the team. Race engineer Will Joseph sounded increasingly nervous over the radio.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Norris shared details of the talks that took place afterwards. In addition to his management, team principal Andrea Stella and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown were involved.

He says all parties left the ‘very quick’ meeting on the same page. He sounded confident that there wouldn’t be a repeat in the future.

“People made it into a much bigger thing, but no, it was a much quicker conversation between Andrea and myself,” he said. “I mean, different people, but Zach, myself, that kind of thing, my management.

“But it wasn’t like it took days. It was pretty much a simple conversation and was understood from both sides of the party. And that was crucial. It was not a long process. It was a very quick process. We were able to to understand that, learn from it, move on.”

Lando Norris told he ‘forgot’ vital thing about Oscar Piastri in McLaren contract talks

F1 expert Peter Windsor critiqued Norris’ choices after the Belgian GP, when another poor start cost him a shot at victory. Windsor says Norris needs to ‘get out of Monaco’ and move close to the McLaren factory in Woking as part of a change in his mindset.

The 24-year-old is one of nine F1 drivers who currently reside in the principality. Hamilton and Verstappen, the two most successful figures on the grid, are also in that number.

Windsor also feels that Norris made a crucial mistake in contract talks with McLaren. He committed his long-term future to the team in the winter.

He’s now been told that he should have demanded number-one status over Piastri and threatened to leave if the team didn’t accept. Thus the events of Hungary would have been avoided.