McLaren explain Lando Norris refusal as papaya rules makes F1 return

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has explained why the team did not agree to Lando Norris's wish to pit first in the Hungarian Grand Prix. 

Running second behind team-mate Oscar Piastri after the first round of stops at the Hungaroring, Norris requested to stop first, a request which his race engineer Will Joseph denied, with Piastri being brought in on Lap 33 to prevent Lewis Hamilton from undercutting the race leader.

Piastri emerged in fifth place ahead of Hamilton, thus allowing Norris to unleash some of the "miles faster" pace he claimed he was prevented from using whilst tucked up behind Piastri. 

Ultimately, McLaren pitted Norris at the end of Lap 38, the same lap as Piastri lost time after the incident lapping Carlos Sainz, with Norris emerging 0.7s ahead of the Australian - and promptly pulled away to an easy win whilst Piastri, when running second, retired with gearbox failure on Lap 56.

Detailing why McLaren followed its racing mantra, papaya rules, around the time of the second pit-stop, Stella explained how, given the Australian had earned the "fair" right to try and win the race after Norris's mistake on the opening lap at Turn 2 had handed him the lead, it was right to prioritise Piastri. 

"You look at making sure that you can achieve a victory in a race like that, and look at what's the way to score as many points for the team, but there's also a way which is being consistent with the way we go racing," Stella told media including RacingNews365. 

"Up until the time Oscar pitted, Oscar had gained the lead in a fair manner in Turn 2, so he deserved an opportunity to try and win the race. At other tracks, probably Lando might have overtaken Oscar, but in this case, it's difficult. You need a large pace advantage here to be able to do so. 

"So we were happy to give Oscar the opportunity to fight for the win, and then at the same time making sure that we were protecting the way we go racing, so that's the approach we adopted. Obviously, it's always quite marginal. There's many options that you can consider. 

"But it was a well-executed race from a racing principles point of view, and I have to thank Oscar and Lando because it would not be possible to do so without two drivers that accept and support our way of going racing.

"If you look at the race, you will see that when Hamilton pits, he is in a position to undercut the two McLarens, so we needed to respond because that was the right way to take the car to victory. 

"We needed to have a McLaren in a position of leading that way ahead of Hamilton, so it was either Oscar or Lando. Oscar was in the lead, and we thought that he was the right car to stop for that. 

"Then for Lando, this opened up a different strategy, so it's not like you are deviating because you are thinking about Oscar and Lando. You are deviating because we needed to avoid the Ferrari taking the lead of the race."