McLaren criticised over 'narcissistic sociopath' decisions

McLaren have been criticised for their radio communications after some controversial decisions in the 2024 Formula 1 title race.

The historic team won their first constructors' title of the 21st century, but it was their attempts to secure a drivers' title for Lando Norris which caught the eye.

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2024 saw McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri enter into their second year as team-mates, with the papaya outfit having opted to keep their stellar pairing unchanged until at least the end of 2026.

At the start of the season, neither Norris nor Piastri had claimed their maiden grand prix win, but their running total of six wins between them now is what handed the team the constructors' trophy.

Norris claimed his first F1 victory at the 2024 Miami GP and seven races later, Piastri secured his first win in the sport at the Hungarian GP with Norris in second place, but the result was marred by McLaren having spent the last 15 laps of the race begging the Brit to allow his team-mate to overtake him after previously switching positions in a tactical pitstop.

Smedley issues bold F1 team orders verdict

In the latest episode of the Red Flags Podcast, former F1 engineer Rob Smedley spoke on the issue with team orders in the sport, reflecting on his own relationship with Stella.

The 51-year-old has now taken a step back from F1, but previously worked for Jordan, Williams and most notably, acted as race engineer for Felipe Massa whilst at Ferrari.

Smedley's partnership with Massa began midseason in 2006 and continued until 2013, seeing Massa through to the end of his campaign with the Scuderia, achieving marked success.

During his time with Ferrari however, Smedley experienced his own team orders debacle, where Ferrari were fined $100,000 for breaching regulations at the 2010 German Grand Prix.

"Look, Andrea’s an ex-colleague, a friend of mine, so I don’t want to talk specifically about McLaren but what I would say is there is in general in Formula 1 now, there’s too much pussy-footing around."

"The way the radio messages go to the driver you know, I don’t watch every single race but the races I watch I’m like oh f***ing grow a pair man, just tell him what you need to tell him!"

"You give any narcissistic sociopath an inch and they’ll take a yard right? So don’t give them that inch to start with."

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