Drivers react to McLaren's team orders in Hungary: 'The team comes first'

F1 News

Bottas and Albon will have sympathised with Norris after Hungary GP
23 July at 10:00
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  • Jeroen Immink

Alexander Albon and Valtteri Bottas understand Lando Norris' situation during the Hungary GP. Both drivers acted as second drivers alongside Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at Red Bull and Mercedes. As a result, they know what Norris most likely went through after the race in Budapest.

Bottas reacts modestly to Hungaroring incident

For Norris, the race in Budapest must have been a hard pill to swallow. The Briton lost the lead at the start, but managed to regain it through an undercut. In the end, he had to give P1 back to his teammate Oscar Piastri, which caused many question marks. Bottas has had to endure this once before and therefore has his opinion ready here. "It’s difficult. Everyone here is a racer and here to win, but I don't know the background, but there's always certain rules within teams," Bottas revealed to GPblog among others. "There's certain scenarios that you need to play for the team, so I don't know the details, but in the end, team goes first."

At the 2018 Russian Grand Prix, Bottas took pole position and drove away nicely during the race and was heading for victory. But Mercedes then demanded him to hand over the lead to Hamilton, as the latter was still battling for the title with Sebastian Vettel. The Finn has previously indicated that he considered quitting after that.

Albon admires Norris

Williams driver Albon tipped his hat to Norris after the race. "Very respectful to be able to do that. I don't think it's easy. I think it goes against racing driver logic," Albon revealed. "But he's a team man. I think McLaren are doing the right things. They're obviously also fighting for the constructors, so they're not being stupid. I think if you look at the big picture, I'm not sure they're in the Driver Championship hunt, but they are in the Constructors. I understand it."