Following the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella shared his insights on the weekend and broke down the team’s decision to pit Oscar Piastri to cover off Lewis Hamilton and the call to go longer with Lando Norris.
It was a strong outing for McLaren at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP with reigning champion Norris clinching his maiden victory of the 2026 F1 season. However, the weekend ended with mixed feelings for the Woking outfit, with Piastri facing an early retirement on Lap 56 due to a gearbox failure while running in P2.
Stella rejects idea of favouritism at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
On the opening lap of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, Piastri, who had started in P3, overtook Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and polesitter Norris with take the lead. McLaren hence placed priority on the Australian as the leading driver of the race.
Meanwhile, Norris, who had lost the lead, had radioed the pit wall and asked to box ahead of his teammate to execute an undercut. McLaren had rejected the Briton’s request, insisting on adhering to the standard approach of letting the lead driver have priority.
“You know, when you are at the pit wall, you obviously constantly evaluate all the options. And you look at that from different angles. You look at that from making sure that you can achieve a victory in a race like that. You can 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.”
Giving Piastri a fair chance of winning the race
“And I think up until the time Oscar pitted, Oscar had gained the lead in a fair manner with the action in corners one and two. So he deserved an opportunity to try and win the race. In 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.”
Placing the team first
Stella also praised both drivers for putting the team ahead of their personal ambitions and for trusting the pit wall’s decisions.
“But I think today 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.”
Decisions made by external threats, not internal desires
On lap 30 of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, Ferrari had pitted Lewis Hamilton for his second set of hard tyres, threatening an undercut on both McLaren drivers. The Woking squad responded by pitting their leading driver Oscar Piastri three tours later. Car #1 went a further six laps.
The 55-year-old clarified that the team’s decision complied with their meritocratic approach, awarding Piastri in P1 with the first pit stop. He shared that this was a reaction meant to ensure a McLaren victory to maximise the amount of points scored. It kept them track position against their 2008 F1 World Champion as well.
Stella added that the developments in the second half of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP was due to the raw pace Norris had and not because of the team giving the Briton a better strategy. Once the World Champion got into free air, his pace was on another level to everyone else, both before and after his second stop.
“I think 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 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. And then for Lando, this opened up a different strategy. So it’s not like you are deviating because you are thinking about Oscar or Lando. You are deviating because we needed to avoid that the Ferrari could take the lead of the race.”
Mega pace from Lando Norris
“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 today. So 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.”
Stella on radio message from Lando Norris at 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
In the latter half of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP after Norris had taken the lead from Piastri via an overcut, the Briton began pushing his McLaren in clean air. He was naturally attacking the kerbs at the turn 4 and through the chicane.
This led to his race engineer, Will Joseph, delivering a firm message via radio: “Lando, you’re clearly the fastest car and [have] nothing to prove. So the snaps at turn 4 and 8, no more.”
Stella defended both the radio message and the Briton, stating that Norris was not trying to make a statement but was genuinely extremely quick.
However, in defence of the pit wall, the Italian shared that the Woking outfit had reliability concerns following Piastri’s DNF, and they deemed pushing aggressively, especially over kerbs, as an unnecessary risk.
“Well, the reality, I think, is that he just had a lot of pace. So he didn’t need to push particularly hard to be fast. The main thing with Lando is that we were managing a couple of things from a reliability point of view. So there was absolutely no need to use kerbs that we then instructed a couple of times quite explicitly.
“And also we were managing another thing. And therefore we didn’t want to stress the mechanics of the car too far. So that’s why we were telling Lando. But Lando wasn’t proving anything. I think he was in the lead, clean air. And he just had a lot of pace in the end.”
