McLaren get helping hand from Nico Rosberg after Lando Norris Hungarian GP saga
McLaren's communication to drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri was questioned after the Hungarian Grand Prix.
McLaren chief Andrea Stella insists he will make “good use” of advice from Nico Rosberg after the former Mercedes driver questioned the team’s communication during the Hungarian Grand Prix. Lando Norris seemed unhappy with radio messages from race engineer Will Joseph despite his team completing a one-two finish.
Norris had taken pole position for Sunday’s race but lost his lead to team-mate Oscar Piastri at the first corner. The Brit won back the place before a 20-lap back-and-forth ensued over the duo’s positioning.
Piastri was eventually handed first place after McLaren were confident of securing a one-two finish. Norris gave way with only three laps remaining, having been told to allow the Australian to overtake “at your convenience”.
Rosberg felt that the messaging from the McLaren staff needed to be firmer and clearer, particularly to prevent a rivalry brewing between their two drivers. The German made this point clear to Stella after the race.
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“I will allow myself to make a statement first before a question,” he said on Sky F1. “I strongly recommend that you guys in managing this intra-team battle between the two drivers, you need to be extremely clear and firm.
“Today there was the word ‘your convenience, Lando.’ That for a driver leaves the door very wide open to use all the kinds of grey areas so that would be my strong recommendation going forward.
“Very clear, strong instructions from the pit wall to the drivers, otherwise you end up with a whole bunch of difficulties between the drivers and I talk from experience.”
Stella took the criticism onboard and responded that McLaren “will make good use of it”.
Norris admitted that McLaren had made their own lives difficult on a day when their remarkable triumph should have been the main story.
"I know that I always was going to give [first place] back unless they changed their mind on what they were saying and they didn't, so all good," the 24-year-old said.
"I got put into the lead rather than wanting to. I feel like we made things way too hard for ourselves and way too tricky for ourselves. We should have just boxed Oscar first and things would have been simple.
"But they gave me the lead and I gave it back. So I shouldn't have won today. I didn't deserve to win because of my start and Oscar's good start. That's that."
