Why Stella believed Norris would be the teamplayer in Hungary
F1 News
Lando Norris played the team game in Hungary, giving up what would have been his second career win after McLaren pitted the Brit before his teammate Oscar Piastri. After multiple radio messages pleading for Norris to let Piastri by, Norris eventually did give Piastri P1 on lap 69. However, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admits he always knew Norris would give up the position and play the team game.
Stella trusted Norris to play the team game
Speaking in the paddock after the race to GPblog and others, McLaren's team principal Andrea Stella admitted that he was never worried about Norris not giving first place back to Piastri. "I know Lando enough." Stella began; "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 well enough that inside Lando, we have the race driver and the team player."
Stella went further to admit that whilst he knows a driver would never give up a victory easily, that the team must always come first. "So it's a situation that I think proves, it shows and it demonstrates once again what it means to be part of the McLaren Formula One team. These are the values. Sometimes they conflict with some instincts of a race driver. But the values, the culture, and the good for the team stays always the most important thing."
To further prove his point that the team must always come first, Stella opened up on the meetings that took place before the race. "I don't want to disclose too much, but this one principle is simple: the interest of the team comes first. If you mess up on this matter, you cannot be part of the McLaren Formula One team."