McLaren will have to feel “regret” for the Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri team saga in Hungary.
That is the claim of Jos Verstappen, former Formula 1 driver and father of Max Verstappen, who battled and defeated McLaren’s Lando Norris to win his fourth consecutive world championship in F1 2024.
Additional reporting via Thomas Maher
Team orders at McLaren became a key topic for debate as a push for the not only the Constructors’ title, but the Drivers’ too, came into view with the McLaren taking over from Red Bull’s RB20 as arguably the leading car on the grid after Red Bull’s dominance faded.
Ultimately a key juncture came in Hungary where, after undercutting team-mate Oscar Piastri with McLaren acting to defend the one-two result, Norris was asked to let Piastri back through into the lead.
An era of back-and-forth ensued before Norris, despite everything agreed, released Piastri to take the win, and Verstappen then took the title, sealing the deal in Las Vegas with two laps to go, with his final margin over Norris of 63 points. .
And Verstappen Sr believes McLaren’s F1 2024 review will feature regret regarding the Hungarian GP.
“They must have regretted that later,” he said of McLaren’s Budapest team orders when speaking to Formule 1.
“But it’s difficult to say anything about it, because you don’t know what’s going on in this team, what the contracts are like and what agreements have been made. “
What Mr Verstappen does know is that his son probably wouldn’t have dared to accept such a request.
“But if I translate it to Max, I think it would have been difficult for him to let his teammate through,” Jos continued. “But everyone is different and will have to react in the way that suits them best. “
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Norris has selected a different turning point from his F1 2024 title battle with Verstappen, that being the Mexican Grand Prix, where Verstappen received a 10-second penalty for forcing Norris off the track and another 10 seconds for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, as the title protagonists went to battle.
There, Norris said he had learned that Verstappen was not the best driver.
Asked after his victory in the Abu Dhabi season finale whether this boosted his self-belief ahead of a potential F1 2025 title challenge, Norris told media including PlanetF1.com: “Honestly, it’s probably the harder moments, which are the ones you learn the most, so it’s kind of true what people say.
“Those more difficult moments, my battles with Max, that kind of thing, some other instances of the season.
“If I go back to Austria and Silverstone, there are only a few and some have other reasons, but none of them is necessarily the one that makes me doubt myself the most.
“This season’s been my best season from a performance [standpoint] personally, was it good enough? Probably it wasn’t, no.
“But when you look at my own performance and my performance in qualifying, for example, it’s almost double what it was last year, especially compared to the other guys in the same car. “
“Obviously, I lost some points, and there were maybe three starts this year that rarely saw me lose one or two positions, but those were positions reserved for Max.
“None of them, when I look back, made me feel like I didn’t have what it takes.
“Those only moments were when he was directly opposing Max. Facing Max in any state will be difficult and no one will laugh at running against Max.
“I think Mexico was a turning point when it showed that it didn’t perfect everything.
“I think if we all go back to Austin and go back to Turn 12, [the] majority of almost everyone on the grid, as drivers and also off, didn’t agree with the fact that I either won a penalty or we didn’t have it. we had one, or we have had one.
“So I think it’s a few moments along the way, from a speed standpoint, to not doubt myself this year, and I think I’ve given myself more confidence.
“It was more just that toe-to-toe fight with one of the best in the world. And the thing is, what you don’t see on the outside are some of those moments where, if I did certain things, we would have crashed.
“People on the outside have no idea on what it takes, and those moments where you accept losing a battle, and that is the case, and that was because of where we were in the first six, seven races of the year.
“We lost too many points and I was in that position where I couldn’t win as much as I needed and wanted, but I don’t have any of those excuses.
“I say I didn’t have what it took this season to fight Max and deliver what he needed.
“But it definitely gave me the feeling of ‘Okay, if I’m just a little bit here, this little bit here,’ for the first time I’m confident and saying I definitely have what it takes. “
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