Will McLaren be worried about Norris-Piastri relationship?

Lando Norris narrowed the Australian’s lead to nine points in the race for the drivers’ championship by leading a McLaren one-two at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Formula 1 will now take a summer break before hosting the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort on August 29 and 31.

BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson answers your latest questions following the race at the Hungaroring.

After Oscar Piastri attempted to dive-bomb Lando Norris once more, will McLaren be privately concerned about the tense feud that is tarnishing the two drivers’ relationships? What can they say to both drivers to make them both happy, if applicable? – Jake

McLaren was pleased with the outcome of the Hungarian Grand Prix. They thought it best represented the philosophy they have adopted for their driver-to-drive team intra-team competition.

They are allowed to race each other, as long as they are fair – and that includes the possibility of divergent strategies to try to win a race that has been getting away from one or another.

Lando Norris did that in Hungary on Sunday. At the end of the first lap, Norris had to fight back from fifth place after finding himself in the wrong spots while trying to pass Oscar Piastri off the line.

He and engineer Will Joseph opted for a one-stop strategy that McLaren had not really considered would be a serious choice pre-race. In his final assignment, it gave him the track position over Piastri, and he did it flawlessly.

By allowing Piastri to have the best chance to defeat Norris within the bounds of the race’s duration, even to the point where it cost Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc track position, McLaren made every effort to give him the best chance to win.

But it did not work out for Piastri – he caught Norris with a few laps to go, but Norris had kept his tyres in decent shape and was able to fend his team-mate off.

A tense, fascinating race was born from it. More importantly, the radio transmissions, particularly those between Piastri and engineer Tom Stallard, showed how significant this conflict is to both drivers for the first time. Piastri claimed that he “didn’t care” about Leclerc.

Relations have been – and remain – so harmonious that it has sometimes been hard to appreciate the intensity of the title fight, how much it means to them, from the drivers ‘ public utterances. There was no doubt about it after reading this.

McLaren’s management was delighted, far from being concerned.

Chief executive officer Zak Brown described it as “an epic finish”.

When two outstanding drivers, like Lando and Oscar, compete for a title in a Formula 1 grand prix and compete for the drivers’ championship, it’s always going to be very close, according to team principal Andrea Stella on Sunday.

“But that was fair racing at the same time as that was firm racing.” It was definitely within our principles.

Oscar and I had a little lock-up, but Lando also left some room because he knew he would have to stop braking.

We continue to be extremely proud of our Lando and Oscar victories. This is a great way of honouring F1 racing. Even though we saw Ferrari compete for the victory for two-thirds of the race, these are the values of McLaren, and it will likely be a question between the two McLaren drivers.

It appears certain Mercedes will resign George Russell now that Max Verstappen will remain at Red Bull for the following year. Given how well he has driven this year, is there any way he might explain his feelings about he seemingly being seen as the second Max option? – Tom

In the weeks leading up to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Russell very clearly stated that he was not particularly happy with the way his contractual situation this year has been handled.

Mercedes manages and employs him, so the team can effectively bargain with themselves about his contract.

As Russell put it: “Something we need to think about. What do I want and what do they want?

For the past few months, we have been in a somewhat unusual situation. I don’t have huge power in this agreement. And perhaps the last six months’ interests diverged.

“But it’s my responsibility to carry that risk out.”

” I still trust Toto]Wolff] and the team will continue to support me, but for Kimi]Antonelli] and me, the last six months have not been the most assuring and that is conflicting. “

Next year, both Russell and Antonelli will continue to compete for Mercedes. Additionally, it is obvious that the same circumstance could arise next.

Is there a compelling reason why Aston Martin performed so much better in Hungary than it did in the past? Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso both had significantly faster times than the previous week. – Stan

Aston Martin themselves were a little perplexed as to why their performance for the Hungarian Grand Prix had improved significantly.

After all, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso were sitting together in Hungary’s third row, just as they were sitting in Belgium the previous week.

But there doesn’t seem that much of a mystery, really.

Alonso once said, “I would say that it’s track characteristics. Seven days ago, we had a major car change, but that is no longer the case. No new parts for anybody. Simply put, the circuit’s characteristics seem to fit our car, not ours.

“It will be helpful to understand why the car is operating in this advantageous position,” the company said. “We can use it in the coming races.”

There are two things to think about here. One is that Aston Martin had a positive outlook prior to Spa when it completed a significant upgrade at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in mid-May.

Alonso placed fifth at Imola, seventh at Monaco, 10th at Spain, sixth at Canada, 11th at Austria, and ninth at Silverstone.

In that context, it’s the Spa result that should be seen as out of kilter, not Hungary.

The Aston Martin is a car that struggles on the straights, which is a result of poor aerodynamic performance. And straights account for two-thirds of Spa. The Hungaroring has a much higher percentage of corners.

Silverstone is a fast track, but Aston Martin ran an old-style floor at Spa, believing it would fit the track, which also caused the Eau Rouge bottoming issue.

This required switching to a previous-spec floor from Imola instead of the new one that Silverstone introduced.

Perhaps that also played a part.

Alonso’s outstanding race on Sunday resulted in the same race result as Lando Norris’ one-stop strategy, which he used to secure his grid position in Hungary. In seventh place, Stroll was less than ten seconds behind.

It would seem logical to assume that Aston Martin’s form may continue to fluctuate according to track characteristics from now on.

Does holding investigations after a race has finished damage the credibility of F1? There is no other sport that I can think of where the outcome can change. – Martin

This is presumably a reference to the decision to look into the incident between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at Turn Four after the race in Hungary.

The FIA should have responded to numerous requests from teams and drivers in the past to thoroughly examine potentially contentious situations rather than make their own decisions during the race.

Consider the Verstappen-Lando Norris controversy from last year in Austin. Then, McLaren argued that stewards should have heard the views of both drivers before making a decision.

The stewards in Hungary made the decision to do that.

Hamilton, it turned out, didn’t appear at the hearing. Verstappen said: “I don’t think Lewis actually felt a lot for it because if he really felt something for it, then of course he’s there in the stewards ‘ room, right?

That’s just one little thing, I believe, because neither of us had the best weekend in the world.

Of course, it could have been that Hamilton didn’t show up because he was upset after a difficult weekend and didn’t want to get into a fight over a situation that would have no bearing on the outcome of his race.