Team principal Andrea Stella has spoken after the team orders snafu between Lando Norris and McLaren in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Team principal Andrea Stella has spoken after the team orders snafu between Lando Norris and McLaren in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
I don’t like team orders but banning them just doesn’t work as there are so many grey areas to trigger them, so they are a part of the sport.
The biggest thing is that this would have been agreed before the race, if McLaren were serious bout giving Lando the win at the expense of his teammte as with Ferrari in Micheals day, it would be been agreed no later than the Sunday morning brief. The fact that it was not, means that Lando had already agreed to abide by any team orders benefiting Oscar. Landos engineer even said as such over the radio to him as this played out.
By not abiding by what was pre agreed means a complete lack of trust from the Team and Oscar, it also builds in an expectation for Oscar to behave the same when the situation is reversed, in both directions. McLarens biggest strength over Red Bull is that they have two great drivers, Red Bull only have one this season. They will gain more working as a unified team than what Max can achieve on his own.
People can suggest that Lando should be more selfish, but the ideal time to get that nailed down is during your contract negotiations as with Micheal and his Ferrari teammates, or Max and Checo. Failing that you can try during the race weekend before the actual race, but it is going to be much more difficult especially when you have two drivers who are told they are number ones.
I don’t disagree with sensible team orders, on the rare occasion such a thing exists. What I don’t like is the neutering of competition just because “team first.”
Most of the time the teams are quick to slit a driver’s throat if some hot new talent comes along so it’s hard to find fault with a driver that wants to capitalize on an opportunity to win, or even just to race and compete. As an example I think we’ve seen some excellent wheel to wheel battles between the Ferraris in recent years without the catastrophe the teams would have us believe is inevitable. We definitely wouldn’t see that with team orders.
What we saw last weekend was more a result of incompetent race management, and a driver that’s seen it too often driving that point home. I can’t say it was handled in the most professional way from either side, driver or team.
I agree it was terrible management from the team during the race, they were begging Lando to move over rather than say what we saw during the end of the Nico/Lewis era at Merc. That nastiness is a golden example of why if you agree before the race to do something you absolutely have to stick to it, and why letting them race will eventually boil over into the unacceptable once the honeymoon of “this is fun” is over. Charles and Carlos were pretty sick of each other earlier this season when going wheel to wheel, another honeymoon over now that Carlos is under real pressure to find a new seat.
And they did agree to it before the race, thats the key thing here. Not sticking to what you agreed before the race is far far worse.