McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella doesn’t hold Oscar Piastri’s angry and sarcastic comments over the radio against him and shows understanding for his frustration
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella understands Oscar Piastri’s outburst over the radio during the Hungarian Grand Prix, but emphasizes that the pit stop strategy was the right decision. The Australian had repeatedly vented his frustration over the radio about various situations and even called Carlos Sainz an “idiot” because Sainz had collided with him while being lapped.
Piastri had taken the lead from teammate Lando Norris at the start and subsequently held him off on the overtaking-unfriendly track. Norris, however, wasn’t going to take that lying down and claimed he was significantly faster in open track conditions. He wanted to come into the pits first during the second stint to attempt an undercut, but the team refused.
Standard etiquette dictates that the leading car has priority during pit stops—and in this case, Piastri had earned that right by overtaking Norris fairly and cleanly on lap one.
When Hamilton—who had already pitted a few laps earlier—was about 25 seconds behind the leader on lap 34 and closing in, the thinking at McLaren was that they had to neutralize the Ferrari as the main threat: “We had to react,” says Stella. “Oscar was in the lead, and we thought he was the right car to respond with.”
Piastri came out with a four-second lead, which also gave Norris an opening to slot in. But thanks to a combination of Piastri being held up by Williams driver Carlos Sainz and Norris finding extra speed on a clear track, Norris pulled off a rare overcut to take the lead—much to Piastri’s annoyance.
“Get the hell out of my way, you idiot, oh my God,” Piastri snapped at Sainz in a fit of rage, before directing some of that frustration at his own team as he watched his chance at victory slip away. “Nice of you to factor that in, by the way—thanks,” he said sarcastically.
“Absolutely no problem”
In hindsight, Piastri acknowledged that McLaren had no choice but to bring him into the pits at that exact moment, and that in the heat of the moment, his racing instinct had overridden reason—in the hope that McLaren could somehow rectify the injustice.
For Stella, however, his driver’s comments in the heat of the moment are understandable: “Right after the race, Oscar made it clear that his remark was a comment made in anger,” says the Italian.
“There were a few unfortunate incidents. The most important thing, of course, is the fact that Oscar had a collision with a lapped car. And at the same time, Lando’s pace, once he had a clear run, was simply incredible. I think he gained about half a second per lap. And that pace meant Lando was able to stay ahead of Oscar.”
“I think Oscar understood that right away. It’s completely understandable: When you’re leading the race for almost half the distance and then see yourself lose the lead because of an incident with a lapped car, you might have a brief moment where you make a comment out of frustration. But there’s absolutely no problem there,” Stella emphasizes.
Stella: Race Tactics Made Sense As They Were
Nor could McLaren do much for Norris—who was actually faster—up to that point. Stella explains that the pit wall had at least “explored all options” in case the team came under even greater pressure from behind—such as swapping positions so Norris could try to open up a gap, only to swap positions back at the end of the race, provided McLaren was still in control of a one-two finish.
But Stella also felt that Piastri “deserved a chance to win the race” by passing Norris at the start and then keeping him at bay.
“You’re constantly weighing all the options,” Stella added. “You can look at how to score the most points for the team, but you also have to be consistent in the way we run the race.”
“And I think that by the time Oscar came into the pits, he had earned the lead fairly through the move in Turns 1 and 2. So he deserved a chance to win the race. On other tracks, Lando probably could have passed Oscar, but here it’s difficult.”