McLaren responds to Oscar Piastri anger after Hungarian GP team radio
Oscar Piastri let his frustrations be known after losing the lead in Hungary.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella clarified Oscar Piastri made a “comment in anger” over team radio on Sunday, when he lost the race lead to Lando Norris.
With Norris yet to stop for a second time, Piastri made contact with Carlos Sainz when he approached to lap him out of Turn 2, with the Williams driver being hit with a five-second penalty for causing a collision.
Stella: Oscar Piastri radio a ‘comment in anger’ in Hungarian GP
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Having taken the early lead, Piastri had been in a race-long battle with his McLaren teammate and, two laps after Piastri’s collision, Norris pitted, exiting and holding the net lead of the race in a crucial move for the outcome of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Australian’s race engineer, Tom Stallard, took to team radio to assure his driver: “Oscar, that’s Sainz that cost us that.”
A frustrated Piastri replied: “Oh mate, just don’t even ****ing talk to me now. Nice of you guys to factor that one in, by the way. Thanks.”
While this ultimately ended up being immaterial following Piastri’s late retirement for a gearbox failure, the comment appeared to come with a hint of suggestion of being at a strategic disadvantage to his teammate in losing top spot.
Stella clarified that, with Norris having extended his second stint by six laps, he managed to complete a successful overcut on Piastri by gaining a significant portion of time per lap.
While acknowledging the “unfortunate episodes” to come Piastri’s way, the McLaren team principal explained Norris’ “simply mega” pace also contributed to the reigning world champion gaining the lead.
“Immediately after the race, Oscar clarified that his comment was a comment in anger, and that what happened today in terms of how the race unfolded, the competition between the two McLaren drivers was all fair, and it was great racing,” Stella told PlanetF1.com and other media in Hungary, when asked if Piastri was at a strategic disadvantage.
“The drivers had their opportunities in Corner 1 and 2. I’m very pleased with the respectful approach that they had to each other, staying away from contact, and ultimately Oscar took the lead because he judged the grip in Corner 2 better than Lando.
“From there, Oscar had his own opportunities of winning the race, leading the race. At some stage, we needed to pit to cover Hamilton because here, you can’t really afford to give any positional advantage, and then there were a couple of unfortunate episodes.
“Obviously, the most important is the fact that Oscar had a collision with a backmarker [Sainz]. At the time, my understanding is that the blue panels were not working, so perhaps today was more difficult than normal for the backmarkers to appreciate what was happening in the mirrors.
“Carlos is a very fair, very correct driver, so I’m sure that that was absolutely unintentional, but a bit of a shame for Oscar. He lost seconds, and at the same time, once Lando was released, then his pace was simply mega.
“I think he found half a second per lap, and this pace meant that Lando could pit ahead of Oscar. So for me, this is just great racing, sophisticated racing in a way, and the good news is that the two McLaren drivers are in contention for a victory or a podium. So that’s certainly not the case.
“I think Oscar understood it immediately, it’s absolutely understandable that when you lead the race for almost half, and then you see yourself losing the lead because of an episode with a backmarker, then you may have a moment and make a comment in anger, but there’s absolutely no problem from this point of view.”
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Stella went on to add the threat of Lewis Hamilton from behind forced McLaren’s hand at both rounds of stops in the end, and with Piastri as the lead car, he was stopped first to maintain track position.
He assured that, with Norris carrying on, it was not a way of creating the right circumstances for him to lead, but a combination of the Briton’s pace and how race strategy required track position dictated it.
“If you look at the race trace, you will see that when Hamilton pits, he is in condition to undercut the two McLarens, so we needed to respond because if that was the right way to take the cars to the victory,” Stella explained.
“Oscar was in the lead, and we thought that he was the right car to stop for that, and 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 that the Ferrari could take the lead of the race.
“I think then, what follows has to do with the pace difference because Lando on used tyres was not much slower than the cars on new tyres, and it’s there that he gained the victory.
“I think it’s a victory on pace, and Lando had the opportunity to use it, but not because the team kind of wanted to create it. The team needed to cover everything.”
Norris now sits 36 points ahead of Piastri in the Drivers’ standings after the Australian’s non-finish, with the Briton having taken his first win of the 2026 season.
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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