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 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.