McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has defended the team’s pitstop strategy in the Hungarian Grand Prix while expressing full understanding of Oscar Piastri’s furious radio outburst.
Piastri had led the race comfortably before being baulked by Williams driver Carlos Sainz during his second pitstop sequence, costing him the lead to team-mate Lando Norris.
The Australian’s frustration boiled over in dramatic fashion, with Piastri heard on team radio screaming: “Get out of the f****** way you idiot, oh my god.”
He then directed sarcasm at his own team after the incident unfolded, saying: “Nice of you guys to factor that one in by the way, thanks.”
Stella explained that the decision to pit Piastri first was driven by the threat of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who had pitted earlier and was closing rapidly on the two McLarens.
“When Hamilton pits, he is in condition to undercut the two McLarens, so we needed to respond,” Stella said. “Oscar was in the lead, and we thought that he was the right car to stop for that.”
Piastri emerged from his stop four seconds ahead, but a combination of the Sainz incident and Norris finding exceptional pace in clear air allowed the Briton to complete a rare overcut and take the lead.
Stella revealed that Piastri approached the team after the race to explain his comments, describing them as a reaction made in the heat of battle rather than a genuine criticism of strategy.
“Immediately after the race, Oscar clarified that his comment was a comment in anger,” Stella said. “There were a couple of unfortunate episodes. Obviously, the most important is the fact that Oscar had a collision with a backmarker.”
Stella added that Norris had produced stunning pace once in clear air, finding around half a second per lap over Piastri, making the outcome almost inevitable regardless of the Sainz incident.
Piastri himself acknowledged after the race that McLaren had little choice but to execute the strategy they did, admitting his racing instincts had briefly overridden logic in the moment.
“I felt maybe the team could have not pitted Lando if it was a two-car race, but I know it’s not a two-car race,” Piastri said. “They can’t just not box Lando because of something out of his control and out of my control.”
He added: “I was just very, very pissed off in the moment about what happened. Without getting crashed into, I would have been ahead of Lando still.”
Stella confirmed the pitwall had evaluated all available options during the race, including swapping positions to allow the faster Norris to build a gap before reverting at the end if a McLaren one-two was secured.
However, Stella also argued that Piastri had earned the right to race for the win after passing Norris fairly at Turn 1 and Turn 2 on the opening lap, and deserved the chance to convert that into a victory.
“I think up until the time Oscar pitted, Oscar had gained the lead in a fair manner with the action in corner one and two, so he deserved an opportunity to try and win the race,” Stella said.
McLaren was also managing reliability concerns with Norris throughout the race, instructing him several times to avoid kerbs, a precaution that proved prescient given Piastri’s eventual retirement with a gearbox failure.
The result brought renewed scrutiny to McLaren’s internal fairness policies, with Piastri also having expressed frustration earlier in the weekend over being made to wait until FP3 on Saturday to receive the team’s new floor upgrade.