Team orders were the main talking point of the Hungarian Grand Prix after Lando Norris handed back the race lead to team-mate Oscar Piastri, setting up the Australian’s maiden Formula 1 victory.
BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your questions following the eventful race at the Hungaroring.
At one point in the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lando Norris was six seconds up on Oscar Piastri – which was at least two or three seconds more than the value of the undercut – so wasn’t he ahead on merit? – Patrick
No. The reason Norris was ahead of Piastri in the final stint was because McLaren had chosen to bring him in first for his final pit stop.
This is not normal practice – in F1, a team would normally always prioritise the driver ahead at the pit-stop period. That’s considered his right.
But there were other factors in play. Lewis Hamilton had made his final pit stop in the Mercedes on lap 40, and on fresh tyres he was closing in on the McLarens at well over a second per lap.
Team principal Andrea Stella said that McLaren had determined before the race that they under no circumstances wanted one of their cars to end up behind Hamilton or a Ferrari, because of the difficulty of overtaking. Which Max Verstappen inadvertently demonstrated so effectively.
So to protect Norris from the ‘undercut’ – being closed down by Hamilton to the extent he would pit and come out behind the Mercedes – McLaren stopped Norris on lap 45.
Now, some argued after the race that this was excessively cautious – at this point Norris was still about 25 seconds ahead of Hamilton, and a pit stop in Hungary costs about 20 seconds of elapsed race time. So Norris was still ‘safe’.
But undercut range is about two seconds, and McLaren did not want to risk Norris’ track position being affected in the event of a problem at the pit stop.
Stella said: “I don’t want in a race like today that the responsibility goes to the pit crew. I would rather take the responsibility at the pit wall, secure the one-two and then we manage the situation between the pit wall and the drivers.”
Why not stop Piastri first? Because they wanted to protect him against Verstappen, who was only nine seconds behind and yet to make a final stop, and ensure the Australian did not run out of tyres in case the Red Bull came into the equation late in the race.
As for the gap between Norris and Piastri in the final stint, remember that in the first stint, Piastri pulled out 3.5 seconds on Norris and extended that to 4.4secs in the second, before he made a mistake, ran wide at Turn 11 and Norris was able to close to just over a second behind.
Norris pulled out a similar gap in the final stint. But both McLaren drivers agreed after the race that, as Piastri put it: “Track position made a very big difference today. And I think that’s why having the start I did was so critical.”
In other words, running in clear air, with no turbulence, and therefore no effect on aerodynamics, reduced strain on the tyres, and therefore less overheating was what made one McLaren look faster than another if it was ahead, when in fact their pace was similar.
And five seconds is the minimum margin drivers try to keep from a car in front in qualifying to ensure their pace is not compromised.
As Stella put it: “The two drivers were very balanced, and today in judging the pace we need to be careful, because with these tyres in these conditions you couldn’t push all the way flat out. So you needed to pick where you controlled your pace.”
Did Norris back himself into a corner by holding on to the lead too long, losing the chance to try and pass Piastri on track? – Jonathan
This argument is that, had Norris let Piastri by when he was first asked to do so, rather than debate it for 20 laps, he would have been right behind his team-mate and had a chance to race him to the end.
In those circumstances, had Norris been able to pass Piastri on track, the win would have been his by right.
The McLaren drivers are free to race – as both emphasised at various times in Hungary.
However, in two equal cars, on the Hungaroring, on a hot day on which tyre management was critical, Norris would almost certainly not have been able to get close enough to Piastri to even try to pass.
And if you want evidence of this, just look how hard it was for Verstappen to pass Hamilton when he caught him on lap 37. He never managed it, despite having a faster car and tyres that were five laps fresher.
The same thing happened to Verstappen in the final stint – then he had nine-lap fresher tyres, but ended up crashing with the Mercedes.
Is Norris too ‘nice’ to ever win a world title? Doesn’t he need more killer instinct? – Florence
There will be many different opinions as to how Norris handled himself in that final stint at the Hungaroring.
Some will say he should have let Piastri by sooner. At the other extreme, some will say “to hell with the team, drivers have to think of themselves. He should have hung on and damn the consequences, and take as many points out of Verstappen’s lead as possible.”
Norris said he was wrestling with this dilemma in the race.
McLaren team principal Stella said: “There is no race driver who would say: ‘OK, when are we going to do that?’ They always hope they will be P1 and [think]: ‘Maybe the team will let me get it.’ But we were very clear before the race, so it’s a situation that proves and shows what it means to be part of McLaren.
“I would be extremely concerned in that case if Lando had not demonstrated ‘I am a race driver’ because that’s the ethos you need to fight hard with Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and more and more Oscar himself.”
After the race, Norris said he understood the rationale for what he was asked to do, and insisted it was right and fair.
The reality is that drivers need their teams. And while Norris might earn a reputed £23m from McLaren and be one of the finest drivers in the world, he is still an employee and he still needs the car and for his team to be on side to win a drivers’ title.
Stella says accepting these sorts of situations is non-negotiable.
“Interests of the team come first,” Stella said. “If you mess up on this matter, you cannot be part of the McLaren F1 team. That’s the principle.”
After Hungary, do McLaren now need to look at the long game and pick a ‘number one’ driver regards the drivers’ title? – Iain
Norris says he believes he can still challenge for the title, even if he says it’s a long shot at 76 points behind Verstappen with 11 races to go.
But I’ll let McLaren team principal Stella answer this question for you, seeing as he was asked it after the race.
“With Oscar and Lando, we don’t need to decide who is the number one driver,” Stella said. “We race fair. And if one of the two drivers gains on merit a result, this is protected.
“Maybe if it’s the last couple of races and there is a strong championship interest for one of the two drivers, we may revise this.
“But what I am expecting [in that situation] is the other driver coming to me and saying: ‘If you need my help with the other driver because he is in the championship position, I am available.’ And you build this ethos if you manage days like today in a fair way like I think we have done.
“This may give a lot of material for rumours and media. That’s fair enough; that’s racing. To be honest, I enjoy this as a spectator or as a fan. But please acknowledge that we just did what was fair today and I want the entire team to realise and hopefully our fans as well.”
At what point can we truly rule out a Max Verstappen move to Mercedes? Another difficult weekend for Red Bull and internal conflict is building – Lewis
Not yet, that’s for sure. As of now, Verstappen is not considering leaving Red Bull at the end of this season, BBC Sport has been told, but there is still a chance he will at the end of 2025.
Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull until the end of 2028. And one mechanism by which he could have left has been removed.
Until recently, Verstappen had an addendum to his contract signed with Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko which stated that if Marko left the team, Verstappen could as well.
That has now been removed, according to sources close to the situation. The Austrian side of Red Bull were terrified of losing Verstappen and they put pressure on Marko to remove the clause and sign a contract committing him to Red Bull to the end of 2026.
But this does not mean Verstappen has no way out.
BBC Sport understands there are other aspects of his contract that would enable him to leave in certain circumstances, some of which are clauses related to the performance of the car and team. Of course, the contract is secret, so it is not possible to know the full detail of these.
Red Bull have not responded to requests for comment on this subject.
Why might Verstappen leave Red Bull?
One reason is to do with the 2026 engine regulations. These introduce entirely new power units, and Red Bull have set up their own engine company to produce theirs, with backing from Ford.
The Verstappens – Max and his father Jos – are concerned it will not be a match for the Mercedes engine. If they feel from their fact-finding that the Mercedes will have a significant advantage, they will seek to move teams.
Another reason is the allegations of sexual harassment and coercive, controlling behaviour made against Red Bull team principal Christian Horner by a female employee last winter.
Horner has firmly denied any wrongdoing and was cleared by the team in February, which a friend of the complainant told BBC Sport she “struggles to understand”.
Jos Verstappen has made clear in public that he is uncomfortable about this situation, and it is no secret that he and Horner are at loggerheads. Max has been more circumspect about his public comments, but he and his father are very close.
A second internal Red Bull investigation into the allegations against Horner – following the employee’s appeal against the initial decision in February to dismiss her complaint – is ongoing. There could yet be further developments beyond that.
And regardless of the contractual situation, Horner said earlier this year that if a driver does not want to drive for a team, he can’t be forced to do so.