McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown described the first-lap incident, which saw his two cars collide and retire from the sprint at the United States Grand Prix, as ‘amateur hour driving’.
Oscar Piastri tried to push back team-mate Lando Norris at the apex of Turn 1 as they battled behind Max Verstappen, but with Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso on the inside, the Sauber hit Piastri’s left rear, launching the championship leader into the air and coming into further contact with Norris. As both cars stopped at the scene, Brown pointed the finger at Hulkenberg for the incident.
“That was terrible and none of our drivers could be blamed for that,” Brown told Sky Sports. “An amateur hour of driving from a few drivers up there wiped out our two guys.
“I want to see the replay again, but it’s clear that Nico crashed into Oscar, and he had nothing to do with where he was; he hit his left rear tire.”
For his part, Norris did not directly name Hulkenberg for the incident, but also felt that Piastri was not to blame for the contact that eliminated both.
“I don’t know what to do in that,” Norris said. “I just got hit, right? I know I didn’t do anything wrong. Things happened further back and I just got unlucky and got hit.”
“I don’t know, I have to look a little closer. There are more people down the road who are just being a little careless and we are the result of that.”
Piastri was also cautious about blaming any specific driver for the incident, but felt he was far enough away from the apex of the corner to be able to try to switch back to the inside against Norris.
“It’s obviously not ideal, but I haven’t actually seen what happened yet,” Piastri said. “I tried to cut back on Lando, we were both very far from the top and then I got hit and obviously sent me to Lando. So it’s a shame.”
#Brown #blames #amateur #hour #driving #McLaren #clash #RACER