Lando Norris pointed at Lewis Hamilton as he declared his team-mate Oscar Piastri "should be sitting here" after the British Grand Prix.
Norris secured his best result of the season so far as he finished second at Silverstone. He was behind only race-winner Max Verstappen, while Hamilton made it two Brits out of three.
The latter was helped by the timing of a safety car period which allowed him a cheap pit stop. Without that, it was highly likely that Piastri would have secured his maiden Formula 1 podium in the other McLaren.
"I feel for him, to be honest," Norris told reporters, including Mirror Sport, when asked about the Aussie. Gesturing in Hamilton's direction, he said: "He should be sitting here, if things went to plan and there wasn't a safety car.
"So it's a bit of a shame – he deserves his first podium in F1 and it would have been amazing for us as McLaren, celebrating our 60th anniversary with the chrome livery. To share it would have been pretty special. He deserved it, he's been on top form all weekend."
Norris went on to admit Piastri has been hot on his heels and has hit the ground running in his first F1 season. He added: "He's been pushing me an insane amount which is a good thing because it raises the level of what we do as a team.
"But all year he's been good, it's not like he's just turned up here and been strong. He's been good since day one in the car and makes my life tough sometimes. I don't always like it but it's a good thing at the end of the day and makes me a better driver too.
"I feel for him and the team, we did everything we should have done to be P2 and P3 so it's a shame he's not sat here too. He'll have his chance, because he's driving very well and doing a good job. If we can improve the car a little bit more we can be here a lot more often and I'm sure he's going to have his fair few times of being here too."
Piastri, while pleased with the best result of his fledgling F1 career so far, was understandably disappointed to miss out on the top three. "It hurts a little bit to be P4 when we were looking on for a podium for so long," the 22-year-old said.
"Bit unlucky with the safety car timing, but I'm just so happy that I'm disappointed with fourth place instead of what we've been disappointed with earlier in the season."
