FIA post-race press conference – Hungary

1. Lando Norris (McLaren), 2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren), 3. George Russell (Mercedes)

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by James Hinchcliffe)

Q: And for the ninth time in his career, Lando Norris is your winner here in Hungary. Lando, just talk to us about that last stint, battling with Oscar Piastri, your teammate. It came so close there but you held him off.

Lando NORRIS: Yeah. I'm dead. It was tough. We weren't really planning on the one-stop at the beginning but after the first lap it was kind of our only option to get back into things. It was tough. The final stint with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out. My voice has gone a little bit. Pretty good, rewarding even more because of that, but the perfect result today.

Q: You mentioned how it wasn't the original plan, but after that first lap, you fell back to fifth. When they came on the radio and said, "Hey, what do you think about a one-stop?" you almost sounded indifferent. You said, "Yeah, sure, let's give it a try." At what point did it really start feeling like you could pull off this win?

LN: I mean, I didn’t think it would probably get us the win. I thought maybe it would get us at least into second. I knew our pace was good, even in the first stint behind George. I couldn't get past, but the pace was strong. So, I knew if I just had some clean air and I could push that I could maybe make things work, and that's what we did. It’s always a bit of a gamble, these kinds of things, but it also requires no mistakes, good laps, good strategy, all these things. And that's what we had today. So, I'm very happy.

Q: You’ve managed to close the championship gap down a little bit heading into that summer break. How much of a relief is it now to take this time off knowing that momentum is kind of on your side right now?

LN: I think it’s so tightly fought, it's hard to say if momentum's on anyone's side, but we're fighting hard. It's fun. It's tough but fun racing against Oscar and great for us as a team. Another one-two. Our 200th win actually in Formula 1. Credit to Oscar, he put up a good charge and I just about held on. I look forward to plenty more of these.

Q: Marvellous final stint. Congratulations on the win.

LN: Thank you so much.

Q: Alright, Oscar. I know no driver likes coming second place in a race. You came from 12 seconds back after that second stop. Just walk us through that final stint, tracking down Lando, and then ultimately that attempt with two to go down to turn one.

Oscar PIASTRI: Yeah. I pushed as hard as I could. I think after I saw Lando going for a one-stop I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here. Tried a few things. It was a gamble either way and today, unfortunately, we were just on the wrong side of it. The team did a great job. The car really came alive in the second half of the race and has been great all weekend. So, thank you to the team and looking forward to a couple weeks off.

Q: Were you surprised when you got the call from the team that Lando would switch to the one-stop?

OP: Yes and no. At that point, he didn't really have much to lose, so it wasn't a huge surprise. I don't know if trying to undercut Leclerc was the right call in the end, but we can go through it after.

Q: Is it easy to look at it now and think maybe you tried that move in Turn 1 a lap too early? Or do you think you pulled it off with the best chance you could?

OP: I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer, which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. I feel like that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap and then it never comes. So, I thought I would at least try and, yeah, not quite.

Q: You got a smile on your face. Obviously, you still had some fun out there. Congratulations.

OP: Thank you.

Q: George Russell coming home P3 today. George, I think after practice, you’ve got to say that it looked like Mercedes was third best team. So, are you pretty proud coming home with the podium today?

George RUSSELL: Yeah. Really happy with the race today. Obviously, yesterday qualifying was a bit of a surprise. This whole weekend's been a bit surprising for everyone, but so happy to be back on the podium.

Q: It was a bit dicey with Charles at some point. Walk us through that battle a little bit. We saw some close moments, some radio banter back and forth. How did you see it from your seat?

GR: It's one of those where you sort of commit to a bit of a dive bomb. If the driver in front moves, you're already right on the limit of grip and there's not much room for manoeuvre. I think we made contact on the second time, but just glad to get through it. Nice way to go into the break.

Q: You guys came with a slightly different set-up on the car this weekend, kind of reverting back a little bit. It seems like it's trending the right direction. Does that give you hope into the summer break that you guys are getting back on pace?

GR: It's definitely better than the races we've had so far. So really pleased with that.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Oscar, if we could come to you first, very well done. That was a fighting second place. What's your overriding emotion after what is your 12th podium of the year?

OP: Mixed, I would say. You know, whenever you lose a race by such a little amount, it's obviously a bit painful, but I mean, I'm sure it was entertaining from the outside. It was entertaining from the inside as well. So, you know, pretty fun race, all things considered. But, obviously, when you're on the losing side of that battle, it's a little bit difficult. But, yeah, we tried our best, I think, and, you know, we got ahead of Charles. I don't know what happened to him in the last stint, but, yeah, some things to look back on, whether we should have done something a bit different in terms of strategy, but very easy to say in hindsight.

Q: Can I take you back to that battle with Lando in those last five laps? First of all, I mean, given the tyre offset, how confident were you?

OP: I was confident, but I knew it was going to be still incredibly tough because getting close to the car ahead is one thing, but trying to overtake is a completely different story. I knew that I was catching him a lot when I had clean air, but as soon as I got close, it was incredibly tough to stay close enough. There are so many corners in the middle sector that in some cases it almost feels like you do a better job in some corners, and then you pay the price at the next one because you're even closer. That made it very tough. And then with such long corners to end the lap, it just kills any downforce you've got. So, I knew that was going to be incredibly tough. Even if I had more laps, I'm not sure the result would have been any different, but I certainly tried.

Q: How much did the lock-up into Turn 1 prevent you having another go?

OP: Not that much, I don't think. I was able to close the gap again pretty quickly for the last lap. But it's kind of like I said, getting to within six or seven tenths was doable, but to then get even closer than that, I think I needed brand new Softs to be able to do much from that point. So, yeah, it was always going to be tough when I got close. But, I mean, you never want to not take an opportunity that you think is there in case another one never comes up. So, I had to go for it and, you know, in hindsight, obviously you can say maybe I should have waited another lap, but I'm pretty convinced that even if I had waited one more lap, it wouldn't have changed anything.

Q: Oscar, you said a moment ago some things you might have done differently. Do you wish you'd done a one-stop? Do you wish you hadn't tried to undercut Charles Leclerc? Can you just shed a bit of insight into that?

OP: I think we had to try and do something to beat Leclerc because it wasn't obvious that we just had enough pace to blow past him and go and win that way. So, we tried something. Was it the right thing in the end? I don't know. But it's always much easier when you're the car behind to take that risk. For Lando, there was virtually nothing to lose by trying a one-stop race. For myself, potentially there was. And, yeah, we'll look back and see if there was anything we should have done differently. But a two-stop was always the plan before the race, so it wasn't even really discussed that much about doing a one-stop. So, it was certainly a gamble.

Q: George, we'll come to you now. Well done to you as well. Very tenacious race. What does this one mean to you?

GR: Yeah, it's good to be back on the podium. It's obviously been a challenging run of form for us as a team these last six or so races, so it's a great way to enter the break.

Q: How do you explain the turnaround here at the Hungaroring?

GR: We reverted on some of the items we brought. Early in the season we brought a new rear suspension that clearly wasn't performing as we'd have hoped. But it was also a pretty unique weekend. You see the results by McLaren, and it was quite an unusual finishing order from P3 down. Obviously, Max was quite out of position. The Astons had a really strong race weekend as well. So, I don't think we should get carried away with the result. But, clearly, in terms of pace, it was our best race of the season bar Canada.

Q: Can I ask you about your overtake on Charles Leclerc? You seemed outspoken and unhappy with the way he was defending. What did he do wrong in your eyes, and did he deserve a five-second penalty?

GR: You know, when you're coming down the straight at 330 and you sort of dive into the corner, you're right on the limit of your car's grip. You can't just brake and turn to avoid somebody because you're already at the limit of that grip. So, I made my intentions really clear, diving to the inside, and he moved after he had committed to braking, which is not allowed in the rules because of that reason. So, he did it once. I wasn't happy about it. Second time, I was like, well, I'm going to just send it down the inside now, and he did it again, and we made contact. I was glad to get by. But I think when you watch it on TV, you think, “Oh, why can't you just turn to avoid it?” But as I said, you are right on the limit of the car's potential.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Edd Straw – The Race) Oscar, you said that the one-stop wasn't really on the radar, but was it kind of offered to you as a possibility to extend that first stint? And if not, should it have been? And if it was offered, would you have thought about it with more focus on the championship battle than perhaps the battle with Charles Leclerc?

OP: We did speak about it a bit before the race, so it wasn't completely off the table. But, in the race, I got asked about it. Very difficult to know from the cockpit what is going to be the best thing to do. Like I said, when you're the car behind, your risk-reward ratio is always much different. So, yeah, there's always that. Could we have matched Lando? That's, I guess, the question that I don't have the answer to. So, I guess that's the only thing. But we wanted to try and win the race as well, and the best way of trying to beat Lando is by trying to win the race as well. That was obviously an intention, but I think we'll definitely analyse if there was something we could have done a bit differently.

Q: (Patrik Fehér – Vezess.hu) Question to Oscar. After Canada, your championship lead was 22 points, and now it's only nine. What do you need after the summer break to turn around this trend, which is your point lead almost disappeared?

OP: I mean, the biggest lead of the year has been 23, and it's not moved within 10 points for the last ten races almost. So, I'm not really that fussed with that. Obviously, it would have been nice to have the extra points, but I don't think it's necessarily a trend. One second different, and the trend would have looked quite different today. Things happening in the last few races differently could have meant quite a different picture. But you can say that about pretty much every race this year and about every championship ever. So, I'm not concerned at all. I think the pace for the first half of the year has been very, very strong, and I think the last few races as well have been very good. I feel like I've driven a lot of strong races, and it's been very tightly fought. So, I expect more of the same after the break.

[Lando Norris joins the conference]

Q: Lando, well done to you. Great race. Now look, you've won some great Grands Prix in the past. In terms of execution, are any of them more satisfying than this one?

LN: I think it's one of the first ones I've won in probably this manner. I've not won many races, so most circumstances are still new, but I think it's the first one where doing a completely alternate strategy to most, giving myself that opportunity, worked out. I think there have been some others where going long in the first stint, Miami, then getting the Safety Car, things like that have helped me from a luck side. Today, there was not really any of that. So, I think the most rewarding from “let's try to do something different” and it working out, which was a good one. It's a tough strategy to do, but it worked out. That's the most important thing. And, honestly, I didn't really think it was going to work for the majority of that second stint. But with every lap, I kind of gained more confidence that it was going to be closer and closer. So, yeah, definitely a rewarding one.

Q: Just how tough was it to make that set of tyres last 39 laps?

LN: I mean, it's more just making them last at the pace that we were at. I made the Mediums last until, like, what, lap 32 or something. So it wasn't a terrible thought that I can make the Hards last until the end. It was more I just knew I'd have to push flat out for basically every single lap, and that's when it gets a little bit tricky. The tyres get hot. It's easy to make mistakes. The last few laps, the rubber is probably pretty low, and it's just so easy to lock a tyre into one, into two, the chicane, things like that. So, yeah, I knew I could make the tyres get to the end quite easily, but it was more to stay ahead of the other people. It was trying to get ahead of mainly George and Charles at that point. I didn't have a lot of hope that I'd still be in a fight with Oscar till the very end but turned out to be. So that was even better.

Q: Can we wind it back to the beginning now? What were you thinking at the end of the opening lap when you were down in P5?

LN: ‘Brilliant’. Yeah. That's actually what I said over the line the first lap. Because I did, I watched quite a few videos of lap one to Turn 1. Clearly, it didn't work.

Q: So, Lando, what actually happened at the start? You seemed to make a very good getaway, but just…

LN: My start was good. I think Charles' was pretty good as well. Oscar then came over to the left, and I was kind of just hoping both were going to be on the right. I got a bit of a slipstream on Oscar. I had to pull out to the right, but Oscar could stay in the slipstream of Charles, which then gave him a bit more speed again. But at that point, it was hard to back out and go to the left because I would have had to brake a bit. I mean, I'll look back and review it and see what I could have done better. I feel like I was more just unlucky with how things panned out. I think if we were to do it again, most of the time things would turn out better than they did today. So, I think it was just worst-case scenario. But my start was good, and I have nothing to really complain about.

Q: (Eva Vandor – HVG) A question to Lando and Oscar. How do you feel about the second half of the season, and how tough do you expect it to be mentally to get to the end and hopefully a world championship?

LN: I think it's already tough, and it's going to continue to be tough. It's pretty small margins between us. I'm sure there's some things I can do better on and improve on, and I'm sure he'll probably say a similar thing. So, it's going to be a good and tough battle probably till the end. It takes a lot out of you trying to focus so much for every single session, race, everything. So, it's going be a long second half of the season, I'm sure, but at the same time, I'm looking forward to a nice break, a bit of time to rest. And, yeah, try and come back even better because there are those things I need to improve on and want to improve on. I'm not giving myself the best opportunities. Even though the results have looked great, I'm not making my life very easy for myself at the minute. So if I can work on those things, then I'll be in a better place.

OP: Yeah, very much the same. I think it's going to be a tough second half of the year. It has been tough already, and the margins are very fine. So, I think it's going to be great watching.

Q: (Zsolt Godina – F1Vilag.hu) Oscar, last year you said that you would like to improve your qualifying performance for this year. Are you satisfied with the progress you have made? And which areas should you improve more in order to beat Lando in the championship this year?

OP: I've been happy with qualifying this year. Still not been perfect, but it's certainly been a good improvement from last year. I don't really feel like there's one area that's lacking. I felt the same last year; it's just that I never got it all together on the same weekend very often. This year, I felt much more like that, and it's just going to be about trying to do that every weekend to the end of the year. So that's going to be the key.

Q: (Lawrence Edmondson – ESPN) Question for Lando. Andrea just said that going into the race, McLaren weren't sure if a one-stop would even get to the end of the race. So, at what point in that race did you actually start to think, hang on, this is on if I manage it in the right way?

LN: When Will asked me, “What do you think of the one-stop?” I think at that point, I was already, like, seven seconds behind Oscar and eight or nine behind Charles. So, not that I thought my race was over, but it was pretty slim that I was going to be able to at least fight from there, even on a perfect two-stop strategy. So, my expectations were not high, but I was more banking on a safety car or a VSC or something to bring me back into the race. But I didn't have any of that. In the end, I guess it didn't matter. I can't remember if it was just before George boxed or just after that. Will said, “What do we think of a one-stop?” and I said, “Let's do it.” My confidence wasn't the highest, but it was my best chance of trying to do something. And it turned out to be a little bit trickier because it actually allowed me to fight until the very end for the win. Not sure it still felt like the best strategy, but I think with how difficult overtaking was, it turned out to be pretty good.

Q: (Simen Naes Hagen - VGI Parc Fermé) Charles Leclerc said before this weekend that you McLaren guys are going to be the only ones having fun the rest of the season. But do you expect one of the other teams to catch up after the break, or will we see you dominate like Red Bull did in '23 and '22?

LN: I hope we dominate.

OP: I mean, I hope the same thing, but I think we will have competition at certain points through the year. I don't know what happened to Charles in the second half of the race, but clearly something happened because he looked quite quick for the first half. So, I think there are some tracks that other teams have historically been quite quick at, and we'll wait and see if that's the same this year.