There has not been a more exciting season of Formula 1 in recent memory, as the last 12 races have produced six different race winners. True, Max Verstappen has taken home most of the wins and maintains a commanding lead in the championship, but Carlos Sainz Jr., Charles Leclerc, George Russel, Lando Norris, and Lewis Hamilton have joined him as winners this year.
And now you can add a new name to that list, as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took home his maiden win at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix.
But despite this landmark achievement in a driver’s career, the celebrations were muted. Hints of ‘Multi-21’ and ‘Fernando is faster than you’ echoed in fans’ minds as what can only be described as a cock-up by McLaren strategists left a bitter taste in the mouth for all involved.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. During qualifying, McLaren took advantage of a drying track to lock out the front row, with Norris taking pole position and Piastri in second. Max was relegated to third after being unable to come up with a time that could beat the papaya cars.
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The race started great for Piastri, and not so much for Norris and Verstappen: The young Aussie had a great start and took the lead from his teammate, who had a tussle with Max going into turn one. Lando ended up in P3, then later moved up to P2 after Verstappen was forced to give back the place, having gained it by leaving the track. Amid all this, an unbothered Piastri kept extending his lead.
Drama started on lap 41 when, to avoid being undercut by Hamilton, McLaren prioritized Norris and pulled him into the pits first. When Piastri later boxed on lap 48, he came out in second behind Norris, who had the net lead of the race.
The weirdest messages then came over the team radio, but any fan worth his salt knew exactly what this meant. McLaren to Lando: “We’d like to re-establish the order at your convenience.”
The team also emphasized that he was pushing too far ahead of Piastri by saying, “Save more tires, please,” and more tellingly, “We still think you are using the tires... Oscar 3.5 [seconds] behind, I know you’ll do the right thing.”
Meanwhile, Norris had pulled out a gap of about five seconds over Piastri and had been ignoring his team on the radio, much to the suspense of viewers who could listen in. It would seem he was making a point.
With five laps to go, his lead got larger and larger, but on Lap 68, the team finally had enough of the radio silence and gave this banger of an order: “The way to win a championship is not by yourself—it is with the team, you are going to need Oscar, and you are going to need the team.”
It was only then that finally, Norris slowed down on the main straight and let his teammate retake the lead with two laps to go.
These lines will be remembered with infamy, and while it gave Piastri with his first-ever Formula 1 win, it is not a win he would be looking to with much nostalgia after a few years. To be fair, he drove a perfect race from start to end, with only a small off at turn 11 souring what would have been a perfect weekend.
Hamilton finished in third to get his 200th career podium—the most of any driver in history. On the way there, he survived a furious Max (who spent all night doing some sim races) crashing into him after locking up in an overly optimistic overtaking attempt.
As the cars came to a stop, the first person to congratulate Piastri on the win was Norris, but it was clear the former was not enjoying his moment in the spotlight as much as someone who had just won his first race should have been. The post-race cooldown room was almost painfully awkward to watch, as Hamilton tried to lighten the tense atmosphere between the McLaren teammates with some chit-chat. But muted podium celebrations notwithstanding, this year’s Hungarian GP proved to deliver more excitement than what the Hungaroring normally provides.
We have no doubt Piastri will go on to win more races, as he has been one of the best and most consistent rookies we have seen in this stable of drivers, but McLaren should start fixing its race strategy, if only to avoid what we are sure will be awkward team meetings for the foreseeable future.
What do you think? Which between “I know you’ll do the right thing” or “The way to win a championship is not by yourself, it is with the team” will be the line immortalized in memes for years to come? We prefer the latter but let us know your thoughts in the comments.
