What McLaren did during the Hungarian Grand Prix that Christian Horner simply ‘didn’t understand’

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A team orders saga erupted at McLaren during the closing stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Norris was given priority during the final pit stops, despite running second on the road after losing out at the start of the race, which enabled him to undercut leader Piastri.

The team orchestrated the pit stop scenario to cover off a late threat from Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, under the premise that Norris would hand the position back to Piastri once a considerable gap was generated.

The call led to an extraordinary set of circumstances whereby his engineer, Will Joseph, pleaded with him over team radio to slow down to let Piastri through.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner offered his viewpoint when speaking to Sky Sports after dealing with various team order scenarios over the years.

Christian Horner weighs in on McLaren team orders saga

Red Bull has been embroiled in team orders controversy over the years, most recently when Max Verstappen ignored them at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2022.

The famous ‘Multi 21’ saga at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix when Sebastian Vettel ignored team orders to let Mark Webber through, was also a similar scenario to what played out at McLaren in Hungary.

Horner felt McLaren made an unforced error with their pit strategy, which led to the controversy over team radio in the closing stages.

“It’s an awkward position, I didn’t understand why they didn’t give Oscar the first pit stop,” said Horner.

“So they put themselves into that position, but obviously it was something they discussed pre-race and Lando did what was asked of him.”

McLaren’s extrodinary team radio exchanges with Lando Norris

McLaren was left having to plead with Norris during the closing stages of the race, with Joseph reminding his driver of his obligations to the team and to remember “every single Sunday morning meeting we have” in the exchanges.

Norris was defiant by extending the gap to Piastri in a bid to persuade the team that the gap was too large, while McLaren warned him that he was taking too much life out of the tyres unnessasarily.

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He initially planned to let Piastri past on the final lap at the final corner, before he was warned of the potential for a Safety Car preventing overtaking. This is why he eventually let Piastri through with a couple of laps to run, effectively sealing the 23-year-olds first victory in F1.

Verstappen finished in fifth place and took 10 points after getting into a series of incidents throughout the race, notably with old title rival Lewis Hamilton at Turn 1 where the pair made contact which sent his Red Bull briefly airborne.

The stewards investigated both Hamilton and Verstappen after the race but deemed no driver was at fault for the collision.