Ricciardo, Sainz defend McLaren stance over Norris team orders

Former McLaren F1 drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz have defended the approach taken with Lando Norris and the Hungarian Grand Prix team orders saga.

In Budapest, Norris was running second behind team-mate Oscar Piastri, when McLaren brought the Briton in first for the final round of pit-stops to cover off Lewis Hamilton behind, with Norris eventually undercutting Piastri. 

The closing laps of the race were dominated by Norris's engineer Will Joseph imploring him to cede the lead back to Piastri, emphasising that victory in the championship would only come by working as a team player.

Norris eventually let Piastri past with a handful of laps to go, but given the poor day championship-leader Max Verstappen endured with his fifth-place finish, there was a chance for Norris to take a further seven points out of Verstappen's championship lead - currently 78 points, equating to three grands prix worth of wins and fastest laps with 284 points left up for grabs.

There has been debate that if Norris was to lose the championship to Verstappen by fewer than seven points, the team might regret the decision to let Piastri back through, but Ricciardo, who was jettisoned by McLaren in favour of Piastri, defended the approach.

"It's hard because I think obviously we're talking about Lando and Oscar here [in Hungary], so in the case of Lando staying in front, it then fractures the relationship," Ricciardo explained to media including RacingNews365. 

"It is not only with the team, but then with Oscar and there's not three races to go,

"There is still half a season to go. Looking ahead at the rest of the season there will be times where Lando might need to lean on Oscar. 

"If you fracture that still with half a season to go, I think that's where it becomes difficult.

"So maybe me as a young kid in Formula 1 would have thought very different about this, but I think with age and a little bit of experience and wisdom, I think this is the way you have to look at it."

Sainz also defends McLaren

Sainz, who drove for the team at the start of its revival up the grid between 2019-2020 felt that McLaren had earned respect for the way it has transformed into championship challenges, with it being 42 points behind Red Bull in the constructors'. 

"I personally think you guys are being very tough on McLaren. I think if you see where McLaren were a year and a half ago and where they are right now, it's something to admire," Sainz said.

"It is something that only they have achieved with the way that they've developed the car, developed the team and put themselves in a position to even be considering fighting for the championship.

"Whether they will win it or not by seven points, those seven points might be somewhere else, not only in the event of Hungary, might be because they started the season further behind maybe than what they wanted and not in that exact race from Hungary.

"Personally, I admire a lot Andrea Stella, the way that he's handling the team, the way he's handling every situation, how calm everything looks in McLaren, even if you guys are pushing them to fight for bigger things. 

"But I think they are in the right trend and right now they are the strongest team in Formula 1, so hats off to them."