Piastri says he would give up win like Norris

In brief

Piastri “would have given the position back”

Piastri, who scored his first Formula 1 victory last weekend after team mate Norris pulled over for him, said he would have done the same thing if the situation was reversed.

“First and foremost, I am a McLaren racing driver,” he told The Age. “I’m not Oscar Piastri racing… That’s always the big picture. The team orders go both ways. We’re both very open and very honest about it.

“The first priority at the weekend was to secure the one-two for the team… It doesn’t come without some tough decisions, and there’s emotions behind them. But we both know that at the end of the day we’re racing for the team. I think with the last pit stop if we were genuinely racing each other the strategies would have been very different.”

Piastri made it clear he “would have given the position back” in the same circumstances. “It would have been reciprocated had it been the other way around.”

Video shows Alonso’s frustration after qualifying

A video shot by a fan after qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix shows an unhappy Fernando Alonso dropping his jacket on the ground as he prepares to be weighed. The Aston Martin driver complained was incorrectly sent into parc ferme before the session ended amid confusion over the red flag triggered by Yuki Tsunoda’s crash.

Although widely-shared social media posts claimed Alonso had been sent into a “fake parc ferme”, there was no such thing. Alonso pulled up behind one of the ‘Apex GP’ cars being used for filming in parc ferme.

Pas content Fernando de la gestion du drapeau rouge et du parc fermé après le crash de Tsunoda en Q3..et il l’a fait savoir…#rtbfsport #F1 #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/R9HvoqFryR

— VIGNERON GAETAN (@VIGNERONGAETAN) July 21, 2024

DRS zone shortened at Spa

The FIA has shortened one of the two DRS zones at Spa for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. The activation point for the DRS zone on the Kemmel straight has been moved 75 metres further away from the exit of Raidillon. The other zone is unchanged.

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Porpoising improved says Vasseur

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur claimed the team made clear progress with its porpoising problem at the Hungarian Grand Prix after making modifications to the new floor for the SF-24. He hopes to see further gains at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

“The Spa-Francorchamps circuit will allow us to verify if we have done a good job over the past few weeks to mitigate the side effects in high speed corners of the update package we introduced recently,” he said. “The porpoising effect was very low at the Hungaroring, thanks to the evolution of the floor we introduced in Budapest and now we will see if we have fixed it at high speed tracks too.”

Sargeant must start beating Albon – Vowles

Williams team principal James Vowles said Logan Sargeant need to start beating Alexander Albon in order for the team to ensure it is making progress. However he also had some words of encouragement for Sargeant, whose future at the team is in doubt.

“You can see this weekend there were moments where Logan has done some great work,” he said in a video released by Williams. “For example, one that stands out: Q1. Difficult circumstances, straight into qualifying and Logan puts a time in that ultimately got him through.

“Once he had his accident and went back out, he didn’t quite have the confidence in the car so wasn’t able to beat it, but that first lap time did the job required.

“From then onwards, what we’re looking for from Logan is he has to be up with Alex and beating Alex fundamentally from time to time, and that’s how you move the team forward and step the team forward. And Logan is on a good pathway.

“Look back to where we were a few races ago and where we are today, and we’re on a strong path. Our responsibility and duty is to provide a car that is quick enough to both drivers to be scoring points every weekend, and that’s my focus.”