McLaren boss Andrea Stella has argued multiple Formula 1 drivers would have also held a reluctance over team orders like Lando Norris in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Norris was edged at the start when Oscar Piastri made a better launch alongside him on the front row as the pair went wheel-to-wheel with Max Verstappen at Turn 1.
Piastri possessed a several-second advantage over Norris throughout the opening two stints but slipped behind when McLaren opted to pit the Briton two laps earlier.
Norris regained the net lead once Piastri emerged out onto the track on Lap 48 and then ignored numerous calls to give the place back as he extended the advantage.
However, Norris opted to slow down on the start-finish straight with three laps remaining to cede the spot to Piastri, who headed McLaren’s first 1-2 finish since 2021.
Stella has expressed that he holds no concerns over Norris’ actions as he acknowledged that it is natural for a driver’s instincts to overrule when a win is in the offing.
Asked whether he was worried towards the closing laps that Norris would maintain the place over his team-mate, Stella replied: “No. I know Lando enough.
“I know that when you have a race driver and you deal with a race driver, sometimes you have to communicate to all the sides that exist inside a race driver.
“But I know enough and well enough that inside Lando we have the race driver and the team player.
“These two elements came along perfectly today to generate what was the right thing to do for the team, for Oscar and for Lando.
“So we are very happy from this point of view, you know, that there’s no race driver that is such by nature, that would say, okay team, when are we going to do that?
“Like you know, they always hope, they are P1 in a Formula 1 Grand Prix, they hope like, oh maybe the team will let me get it. But we were very clear already before the race.
“So it’s a situation that I think it proves, it shows and it demonstrates once again what it means to be part of the McLaren Formula 1 team. These are the values.
“Sometimes they conflict with some instinct of a race driver, but the values, the culture and the good for the team stays always the most important thing.”
Stella has explained that his acceptance towards Norris’ actions emantes from the realisation that other top-line competitors would have behaved how his driver did.
Pressed to discuss his opinion on the reason it took Norris longer to abide by the instruction from the pit wall, Stella answered: “Because he’s a race driver.
“Mention to me a race driver that would have not done it?
“Actually, I think you can mention to me many that would have not done it until Lap 70.
“And I would be extremely concerned in that case, yes, if Lando had not demonstrated, ‘like I’m a race driver here’, because that’s the ethos you need to fight hard.
“Like you need to fight when you are in contention with the likes of Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and more and more, I guess, Oscar himself.
“So he demonstrated the ethos, the spirit of the race driver, but I think it would be unfair, it could be something that is entertaining to talk about somehow the controversial aspect.
“But it would be unfair not to talk about the resolution which happened according to our way of going racing.”
