2024 F1 HUNGARIAN GP race analysis by Peter Windsor

A superb McLaren-Mercedes one-two finish in Hungary was coloured by controversy when Lando Norris was asked to move over for his team-mate, Oscar Piastri, thereby enabling Piastri to become the first Australian to win since Daniel Ricciardo in 2021. Peter in this video offers his views on this decision - and on the fireworks that surrounded Max Verstappen's fragmented day: Max gave P2 back to Lando after a first-lap skirmish - and then a long first stint left him playing catch-up for the minor places held by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Sir Lewis eventually finished third, Leclerc fourth and Verstappen (after colliding with Hamilton) a seething fifth.
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Images: Pirelli, Red Bull, Mercedes and Peter Nygaard
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[Bassic]

Asserting that Oscar didn’t overtake cleanly at the start is wild.

[sachinbk]

Why did McLaren bring Lando into the pits before Oscar and gave him the advantage (not Lando's fault) and then asked him to give the position back to Oscar when he was clearly the faster between the two and had opened up a 6 second lead. They used this strategy to undercut Lewis but Lewis was not even a threat to these two anyways. They have handled the situation very poorly tbh.

[de]

Literally any other team: lead car gets dibs on pit stops first.

McLaren: we prefer the unnecessary drama.

[koladenurse]

Admittedly, Peter, this is the first time i disagree with you... McLaren created this mess, they should have let the 2 sides of the garage race, Ocar as lead driver in the track should have been pitted first, and then Lando should have been give the all clear to race ... Wins have to be earned and what they did to Oscar would not happen under normal circumstances... Ocar made a risky ballsy move to take the lead, and pulled away... McLaren's approach today did both a disservice to a win... Oscar would have enjoyed his first real win and Lando a great comeback win to beat his partner thus building this confidence to be the teams lead drive. This is how Lewis did it with Nico and it served his skills well...

[williamschoots]

Never disagree with more Peter in most of your moments today, Lando stuffed his own race at the start! Oscar didn’t do anything wrong going into turn one, clearly pushing your opponent wide to assert your position in an overtake is fair play as demonstrated time and time again by other top drives including your Lando! Further more Oscar lead for most of the race, it was only the team decision to pit Lando first that put Oscar in second place! I believe that as time goes on that Oscar will keep improving and will be quicker than Lando ultimately!

[peterbishop]

Even though I am a very proud Australian and a big fan of Oscar's, I was baffled with the instructions to Lando in the closing stages. I agree completely with Peter's comments.
Thank you for a great video

[sread]

What? Oscar absolutely did nothing wrong in turn one. That is a crazy take

[jcx-]

I normally find your analysis fairly balanced. But this was a hard watch for me. Lando Norris will not be winning a drivers title this year. Period. McLaren have a better chance of winning the constructors and require harmony within the team to do it. Lando lost the race at the first corner and that’s on him.. Mclaren are playing a team game this year and it might see them be crowned champions versus a handicapped Redbull.

[cruiseryev]

Are you seriously condemning Piastri for 'forcing' his way to the lead? He's a racing driver and forcing his way to the lead is exactly what he is supposed to do.. This was a completely unwarranted rant.

[elianioriofarrell]

Not with you on this one, what am i hearing, that Piastri taking the lead after a better start deserved a penalty? That his one run wide meant he deserved to not win even tho he regained focus and still pulled away? And then you saying that Norris should limit Piastris opportunities in his contract? What a load of rubbish. And the venomous way you're talking about this being a marketing thing is disrespectful to Oscar.

Just utter disrespect, the amount of times Oscar has had to swap positions to let Norris pass is a massive number and here you are crying because Piastri finally got one in return when the team decided to pit the second place driver first when Oscar was controlling the race. You go on about it being about proper racing but what you're crying about is Oscar letting Norris win with no fight, so how is that proper racing? Saying that Norris got the win taken away when no, that team decision was the team taking the win off of Piastri because there was no way that Norris was getting past Oscar if McLaren did the "proper racers" thing where the lead driver pits first. They left Piastri out to dry in Silverstone to prioritise Norris winning and they left him out to dry here too when he had both of those races within reach.

Absolutely disgraceful to hear you sound so petulant today for the wrong reasons. Stop acting like Piastri was gifted a win when it was taken off of him in the first place by his own team.

[JMOUK]

I like Piastri’s quiet confidence, he just gets on with it. No drama, no fuss.

[krissmilne]

You were right on one point, Norris did make plenty of mistakes. His biggest mistake was not giving the position back on laps 48-50 when he was first asked, because that would have given him 20 laps to race for the win on merit, instead of waiting until lap 68.

[odubaivey]

What the heck are you talking about Peter. Oscar had the better start, he did nothing wrong…disagree with your analysis of the race start

[himeldasgupta]

can we just talk about Lando's start? How many times he has done a bad start. Over and over again. You want to be champion, make sure to have a decent start. What's the point of pole position then?

[sochimairoh]

Peter is 100% wrong here (with all due respect). They had an agreement before the race, the leading driver takes priority on team strategy. Piastri is leading after lap 1 and has the priority and should've been pitted first, however, the team pitted Lando first to cover HAM hence causing an undercut. It will be unfair to keep that position.

[Krwler]

I found Pete’s takes here rather bizarre

[arfa]

Lando needs to have better starts. Oscar attempt on turn 1 seemed totally fair. If Lando wants a #1 driver treatment like Max, he should start dominating his teammates like Max has been. Meanwhile, McLaren didn’t need to cover Lewis on hards, they should’ve pitted Oscar first and Lando could have had a fair chance at racing for the win on the last stint.

[raymondricardo]

Peter i can't agree with you at all. Teams care first about the Constructors championship as a priority then secondly the drivers championship. The team had an arrangement prior in regards to covering off Hamilton and they did the honorable thing and honored said agreement. Lando wanted a freebie but you have to earn it, Piastri took the lead so he earned it, give him that credit, if Lando wanted to win he should have held the lead and he would've probably been a race winner today. I respect McClaren's integrity, the drivers are allowed to race so go win a race, no freebies. So in principle, no taking away anyone's wins and no gifting anyone a win.

[michaeladamson]

Nonsense .. the mistake made was by McLaren by pitting the second place car first .. maybe Piastri doesn’t consider himself a number two driver.

If they had pitted the leader first as is normal the Lando would have had a chance to prove he’s the number one by catching and passing Oscar .. pitting Lando to cover Hamilton was nonsense as well.

[dSlayer]

Didn't realize how big a fan Peter really is of Lando until today