McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has stood by the tactical choices his outfit made during the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite Oscar Piastri’s initial criticism after he fell behind teammate Lando Norris. The Australian started the race from third on the grid, quickly passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and pole‑sitter Lando Norris in the opening corners to emerge as the race leader at the end of lap one. McLaren’s early plan was to give Piastri, who was the leading McLaren on track at that moment, priority in the pit‑stop sequence.
However, the arrival of Lewis Hamilton in the second round of stops forced the team to react. Hamilton’s pit entry threatened to undercut the two McLarens, meaning McLaren had to adjust its strategy to protect its position against the Ferrari driver.
Piastri pitted in an effort to retain track position ahead of Hamilton, but a combination of Norris’s faster pace and an ill‑timed incident with backmarker Carlos Sainz of Williams erased his advantage. The collision, for which Sainz received a penalty, left Piastri visibly upset on the team radio.
He vented his frustration immediately after the contact and later directed a further complaint at the team when Norris emerged ahead after his own stop. Stella explained the reasoning behind the decisions: "If you examine the race telemetry you’ll see that when Hamilton entered the pits he was in a position to undercut both McLarens, so we had to respond. If we wanted a McLaren to win, we needed one of our cars ahead of Hamilton at that stage." He added that the choice of which driver to stop first was driven by who was leading at the moment. "Oscar was in front, so we stopped him first.
That opened a different strategic window for Lando," Stella said. The team principal stressed that the adjustments were not about favouring one driver over the other but about preventing Ferrari from seizing the race lead. "It wasn’t a deviation because we were thinking about Oscar versus Lando; it was a deviation because we needed to stop the Ferrari from taking control of the race," Stella noted.
Stella also pointed out that Norris’s pace on used tyres was not dramatically slower than the fresh‑tyre cars, which allowed him to capitalize and ultimately claim victory. "Lando’s win was a result of sheer pace, not because the team engineered it.
We simply had to cover Hamilton’s threat," he explained. Piastri’s race ended prematurely when a gearbox failure forced him to retire while he was running in second place. In the aftermath, the young driver acknowledged that the timing of McLaren’s stops was reasonable and admitted that his request to delay Norris’s pit stop after the Sainz collision was unrealistic.
"I was hit by Carlos and, in the heat of the moment, I hoped they wouldn’t pit Lando so I could stay in front, but that wasn’t a fair expectation," Piastri told Sky Sports F1. "The pit timing was fine; we needed to beat Lewis and that’s what we were aiming for." Before the gearbox issue, Norris had been pressing the pit wall, insisting he was faster than his teammate and urging the engineers to let him pit first.
Stella defended the decision to stick with the original plan, saying the team constantly evaluates every option from the perspective of maximizing points and maintaining a consistent racing philosophy. "Oscar earned the lead fairly in the first two corners, so he deserved a chance to fight for the win," Stella said.
He added that on other circuits Norris might have overtaken Oscar, but at the Hungaroring a significant pace advantage is required to do so. "We were happy to give Oscar the opportunity to contest the victory while also protecting our overall race strategy. It was a marginal call with many variables, but from a principles‑based standpoint it was well executed," Stella concluded, thanking both drivers for supporting the team’s approach.
Even after retracting his criticism of McLaren, Piastri remained angry with Sainz for the collision. In a post‑race interview he said, "I saw the blue‑flag signals, but I was right behind him in that sector.
Getting hit by a lapped car is something you never expect, and it ruined my race. Whether he saw me or not, the lack of awareness is unacceptable." Sainz defended his actions by citing confusion over blue‑flag signals and the fact that he was battling Fernando Alonso for position, which he claimed provided a plausible excuse for the incident. He also suggested that Piastri could have exercised more caution given the high stakes of a race‑winning situation.
Piastri responded sharply, noting that Sainz often draws criticism from other drivers and that he should perhaps reflect on his own conduct. The Formula 1 calendar will resume after the summer hiatus with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort from 21‑23 August, with all sessions broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Viewers can stream the coverage via NOW, with no long‑term contract required.