Lando Norris earned a belated rebuke from McLaren over his first lap incident with Oscar Piastri in Singapore following post-race reviews, he revealed on Friday (AEDT).
The Briton told reporters ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix that there will be “repercussions” for his involvement in causing contact with Piastri — a moment that nearly had catastrophic title consequences for the championship-leading Australian.
Despite McLaren’s relentless commitment to a perfectly level playing field between its two drivers — commonly referred to as ‘Papaya Rules’ — the team opted against interfering during the night race.
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That decision prompted sharp, and uncharacteristic, public disapproval from Piastri, who said over team radio: “If he has to avoid another car by crashing into his teammate, then that’s a pretty sh*t job of avoiding contact.”
It’s worth noting FIA stewards deemed the moment not worthy of any punishment either.
But as team boss Andrea Stella flagged after the race, McLaren bosses reviewed the incident in further detail.
The result, as Norris has revealed, was for McLaren to take the official stance that he was in the wrong.
“There were talks; that was inevitable,” Norris said. “The team held me accountable for what happened, which I think is fair, and then we made progress from there on understanding what the repercussions were for myself and to avoid something worse happening than it did.”
As for what the “repercussions” are, Norris remained tight-lipped.
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“Sometimes the repercussions are not positive,” he said. “But at the same time it’s clear that the interest for Andrea is preserving the positive teamwork that we have, the teamwork that’s allowed us to go from being last on the grid a few years ago to being the best performing team, and also just having two drivers that challenge each other more than any other team on the grid.”
Piastri also spoke on the incident that could yet prove influential, should the title race come down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
He said that despite his initial frustration, he has been satisfied in how the situation has been handled.
Piastri added that he doesn’t believe McLaren is showing any favourtism towards Norris despite the in-race inaction.
“Yes, I’m very happy with that,” he said. “We analysed the incident. There has been responsibility placed on Lando, ultimately, in that collision. But I’m very happy that there’s no favouritism or bias.
“We had a lot of discussions, as you would expect. Very productive. I think we’re very clear on how we want to go racing as a team. The incident we had in Singapore isn’t how we want to go racing. Lando has taken responsibility for that, and so has the team. I think it’s quite clear for us as a team that how lap one unfolded wasn’t how we want to go racing.”
Norris finished the Singapore race in third, and Piastri in fourth, equating to a narrow reduction in the title battle, which the Australian now leads by 22 points.
It remains to be seen if the “repercussions” for Norris will be felt in some way in the upcoming races, or whether the score with Piastri is to be somehow settled behind closed doors.
Piastri said he isn’t expecting “it to be redressed on-track any time or every time”, acknowledging the difficulty in judging a punishment that fits the crime.
“In a live situation, it’s very difficult to analyse that,” he said. “Ultimately, I don’t think you can really say what would have been fair to do in the race.”
Regardless, Norris said he’s committed to avoiding any repeat incidents.
“The last thing I want is something like that to happen to cause these kind of controversial talks after a race,” he said.
“And at the same time, I put just as much risk on me putting myself out of the race as I do whoever I’m racing against, whether it’s Oscar or anyone else.
“So it’s clearly something I want to avoid. It’s so been one of my strengths since coming into Formula 1, avoiding contact in general and keeping myself in the race.
“I think one thing we’ve always done well as a team is using and progressing with the framework that we have to allow both of us as drivers to trust each other and the team. That’s a lot of the reason for why we’re a stronger team than everyone else.”
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