Oscar Piastri told why his Hungarian Grand Prix strategy was doomed to fail after Lando Norris win

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Oscar Piastri came just a few corners away from adding to his victory tally in Hungary, having closed the gap to teammate Lando Norris in the final laps.

Norris had switched to a one-stop strategy after encountering clear air in his second stint, which enabled him to extend his lead over Charles Leclerc, who lost pace in his Ferrari towards the end of the race.

Piastri initially wanted to convert to a one-stop, but his engineer, Tom Stallard, said it would be too difficult. The Australian told his team to prioritise beating Norris, but they left him out a handful of laps too long.

With Leclerc losing even more pace due to problems he was managing, Piastri pitted and emerged behind the Ferrari driver before quickly dispatching him for second. He then closed a 12-second gap on fresher tyres, directly challenging Norris in the final three laps.

Norris put up a great defence despite two dive bombs from Piastri, with the pair crossing the line separated by only 0.698s. Discussing Piastri’s race on the BBC Chequered Flag podcast, former F1 test driver Sam Bird explained why the Australian was doomed from the start.

Sam Bird thinks Oscar Piastri undercut was never going to work

From the outset of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Piastri could be heard complaining about his tyres and needed to run the two-stop strategy as a result of challenging the fast Leclerc for the lead.

Norris lost two places to Fernando Alonso and George Russell, but after passing the Spaniard, he elected to manage his tyres until the first pit stop. Once he was in clear air, he could make use of the extra performance he saved and close the gap to Leclerc and Piastri.

That extra 12 seconds proved critical, as it was exactly what Piastri had lost while sitting behind Leclerc and unable to challenge for the undercut in the first stint.

“Looking at that first stop Piastri did, he was 2.7 seconds back from Charles Leclerc and he covered the next lap,” said Bird.

“You can’t gain 2.7 seconds in one lap in an F1 car, so I don’t think the undercut was really going to work on Oscar Piastri’s side given the fact that Leclerc was going to cover him the very next lap.”

Mystery around Charles Leclerc and Ferrari problems

In the first half of the race it looked like Leclerc was causing McLaren problems with their impressive performance.

The Ferrari driver held a comfortable lead, but it began to unravel after the pit stop phases when the team made changes to Leclerc’s car that impacted his balance.

Leclerc told his team after his second pit stop that his car became “undrivable” in an explosive rant over team radio. While he would later tell the media that the team informed him he was dealing with a chassis-related problem, it raised eyebrows among his rivals.

Russell thinks Ferrari was “close to being illegal” and believes they were running higher tyre pressures coupled with slower engine modes to prevent excessive plank wear.

Ferrari has already been disqualified at the Chinese Grand Prix this year for this offence, and the Mercedes driver believes it’s a similar scenario in Hungary.