Papaya Saturday
Saturday in Hungary McLaren accomplished something they have not done since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix
Following the British Grand Prix, McLaren faced a mountain of questions.
Saturday at the Hungarian Grand Prix, they offered a tremendous answer.
For the first time since the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2012 — when it was Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button accomplishing the task — McLaren locked out the front row for Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Lando Norris captured pole position just ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, giving the Woking-based team a tremendous opportunity to vault over Ferrari and into second place in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship on Sunday.
“I am yes,” said Norris trackside when asked if he was happy with the result. “Very, very, very happy.”
“Yeah, it’s cool to be here, especially when you get a result like this,” added Piastri trackside. “I think, the first one-two qualifying for McLaren for, for a very long time. So, no, very happy, of course.”
At the British Grand Prix two weeks ago McLaren was in position for another tremendous result, when Norris and Piastri were up and running one-two midway through the race. However several strategic mistakes proved to be their undoing, and they had to settle for a P3 and P4 from Norris and Piastri, respectively. While that was enough to see McLaren bring home the most points from Silverstone, it led to more than a week of questions posed to the team, regarding whether they were reading to make a charge to the front.
Speaking ahead of the weekend, Norris addressed some of the criticism the team has faced since Silverstone, and whether that criticism was warranted.
“I don’t think it’s unfair because you’re always going to have it, that’s life. People are going to criticize you, people are going to support you, people are going to make mistakes,” said Norris to Sky Sports F1. “We’re not the only team. There have been times when Red Bull should have won and didn’t and Mercedes should have won and didn’t.”
Piastri was also asked repeatedly about the miscues during the FIA Press Conference on Thursday. The Australian driver framed his response as an opportunity for the team, as now McLaren is learning what it takes to run at the front.
“I think as we’re now fighting back at the front, we’re competing against teams that have been in this position for an incredibly long time. In some cases, over a decade. It’s been a while since, as a team, we’ve been regularly fighting in those positions,” said Piastri on Thursday. “It’s not an excuse for us to be able to get it wrong, but we are inexperienced compared to some of our competitors. We’re learning a lot as we go along. I think we’ve had a few races where we’ve really taken advantage of our opportunities and maybe they haven’t been commented on as much, but I think that’s part of the game.
“When you’re right at the front, these missed opportunities can be the difference between winning a race or finishing second, which, of course, has a bit more weight than if you’re having the difference between a P6 and a P7.”
Now the biggest question facing McLaren is whether they can turn a tremendous Saturday into an even bigger Sunday. With overtaking coming at a premium at the Hungarioring, there is a chance McLaren can turn Saturday’s front-row lockout, into one on Sunday.
But how will the run into Turn 1 off the line play out?
Piastri’s response to that question shows just how much the team might have learned these past two weeks.
“I mean, of course, I wanna get my lead. But we have both cars in the front row You know, we’ve got a big task ahead of us trying to win this championship as a team and we’ll be smart,” said Piastri to Alice Powell.
“We’ve got a very quick car. It’s been working extremely well this weekend. And, yeah, we wanna keep it one-two, and I think we’ll find work [between] ourselves to see who gets one.”
If these are the kinds of answers McLaren can provide on the track, and off, they might have learned everything they needed to from Silverstone.