Re: Hungary 2024 - Piastri/Norris

On 2024-07-23 13:25, Phil Carmody wrote:

Sir Tim <no_email@invalid.invalid> writes:

Geoff <geoff@geoffwood.org> wrote:

The call to swap places was fair enough, given that calling PIA in was a
team tactic.
>
But I reckon NOR shot himself in the foot by not letting PIA past at the
earliest opportunity. If he had, he would have had more laps in which to
  potentially overtake him and win the race.

>
Difficult to imagine this sort of situation arising when Ron Dennis was in
charge (also difficult to imagine Schumacher/Senna/Vettel complying).
>
Given that Norris is well ahead of Piastri in the WDC, McLaren should have
let Lando win. Tough on Oscar, but F1 is a tough sport and his day will
come.

 Yup, agree, unless they had a rock-hard pre-decided agreement I'm not
party to.
 I'm working on the principle that NOR was faster than PIA on his third
set of tyres, and had they pitted Oscar first, Lando would have been on
his tail for 10-15 laps, and one can't say an overtake would be
impossible; Oscar was certainly making more mistakes, and it only takes
one mistake to lose a place.

Ummmmm...how does that work in your mind?
Pitting Piastri first means he's essentially undercutting Norris and building more gap after they've both pitted.

 Was the NOR 1st-box *really* that tactically necessary?

I think they idea was that it letting Norris pit first helped him stay clear of net third place, Hamilton, who had already pitted for fresh tires. If they'd pitted Piastri first, then Norris might be seeing the gap behind him close up to the point where he would get undercut.
I think they were wrong about it, but given that they radioed Piastri to say they wouldn't "cover Hamilton" after Hamilton's stop, it seems logical.

 

With McLaren apparently dominant it is not beyond the bounds of possibility
that Norris could win the WDC - I just hope he doesn’t miss out by less
than 7 points

 Indeed.
 Phil