David Croft stunned by one instruction McLaren gave Oscar Piastri before his first pit stop

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Oscar Piastri can add his name to the list of 21 other drivers who have won a race for McLaren in Formula 1.

When the team first joined the F1 grid back in 1966 in Monaco, few would have predicted them to still be on the 58 years later.

However, the papaya-coloured outfit are once again challenging for titles having not won a championship since 2008 when Lewis Hamilton’s dramatic overtake on Timo Glock denied Felipe Massa his only F1 trophy.

McLaren closed the gap to Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship to 51 points after their impressive one-two in Hungary, even if Lando Norris took some encouragement to hand the lead back to Oscar Piastri during the final stint.

Nico Rosberg compared the team orders McLaren gave out to what he experienced at Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton.

The strategy McLaren decided upon put them in a difficult position and is something they’ll have to learn from if they want to challenge for both championships this season.

However, commentating on the race for Sky Sports F1, Martin Brundle and David Croft were surprised by an instruction McLaren gave Piastri before the first round of pit stops.

Although Norris started on pole position, he was once again overtaken going into the first corner and ended up in 3^rd, similarly to his start in Spain.

However, Max Verstappen had to hand the place back to Norris after overtaking him off the track but by then it was too late for the Brit to catch up to his teammate.

McLaren recognised the strong position they were in immediately after the start and were already giving Piastri instructions to help him get to the end of the race.

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David Croft stunned by McLaren’s instruction to Oscar Piastri in Hungary

Reviewing what was being said on the team radio, Anthony Davidson said: “I’ve just been listening to Piastri’s radio and he said that he’s driving at a comfortable level to look after the tyres at the moment.

“He doesn’t really want to go pushing any harder than this and he was told literally on lap two to start saving his tyres.”

Croft replied: “Wow, that’s early even for Hungary to start saving your tyres that one.

“He leads by two-and-a-half seconds, the only driver Oscar Piastri to complete every racing lap in 2024.”

Brundle explained: “He’s been threatening to win a race all season, hasn’t he? We know he’s got a very calm head when it comes to this kind of situation.

“He’s very, very level-headed, almost zen-like often on the radio.”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

McLaren team instructions dominated the race after early Oscar Piastri tyre call

Piastri was told to look after his tyres throughout the race which inevitably impacted his final stint.

Both McLaren drivers were told to look after their tyres to get to the end of the race although that message to Norris appeared to fall on deaf ears.

Norris’s race engineer had to check his radio was still working before asking him on a lap-by-lap basis to be careful going through turns 4 and 11.

Eventually, it reached the point where Piastri wasn’t going to be able to catch Norris without the Brit relenting and on lap 68 they finally switched their drivers.

Jacques Villeneuve believes this could become a big issue for Norris going forward, especially if he has ambitions to win the Drivers’ Championship.

The final message of the weekend was sent by Norris to Piastri on social media and while he was frustrated not to add to his one career F1 win, he was gracious in defeat.