Lando Norris says McLaren has held him responsible for contact with Oscar Piastri in Singapore, but does not want to comment on any consequences during this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.
The incident occurred when Norris attempted to overtake Piastri on the inside of Turn 3 on the first lap, but light contact with the rear of Max Verstappen’s car resulted in a bang that led to further contact with Piastri. The Australian was unhappy on team radio at the time as Norris defended the move after the race, but the latter now says McLaren attributed responsibility to him.
“The team held me accountable for what happened, which I think is fair, and from there we made progress in understanding what the consequences were for myself to prevent anything worse from happening than what happened,” said Norris.
“But nothing will change in the way we are going to race. We and the team just want to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Simply because there was contact between two McLaren cars.”
“Bag [Brown] and Andrea [Stella] I don’t want that to happen, and I think as teammates we don’t want that to happen. That, of course, is why I was held responsible. It has consequences.”
While Norris finished ahead of Piastri in Singapore despite requests from the championship leader to address the incident, Piastri insists he is happy with the way the situation has been handled since.
“We had a lot of discussions, as you would expect,” Piastri said. “They were very productive. I think we are very clear about how we want to race as a team, and that goes for the future. The incident we had in Singapore is not how we want to race. So Lando has taken responsibility for that, and so does the team.”
“So I think it’s very clear to us as a team that the way the first lap went was not how we wanted to race.
“I am very happy [there’s no favoritism]. I think, again, we analyzed the incident and ultimately the responsibility was placed on Lando in that collision. But I am very happy that there is no favoritism or bias.”
Despite the regularity with which McLaren has had to address situations between its two drivers, Piastri also does not feel that the team is overcomplicating the battle for the championship.
“All I would say is that it is not always immediately clear – in the car or in the race – what the reasoning is for certain decisions, but I think in hindsight it has always been very clear why certain decisions were made and why things were done in a certain way,” he said.
“For me, I don’t think it’s too complicated, no. I think everything had a justifiable reason.
“I would say I don’t expect it to ever or every time be fixed on the track, but at the end of the day we know how we’re going to race, and if we don’t there are consequences.
“So I’m not going to change anything about the way I’m going to race. I think it’s clear to me. I don’t think what happened was intentional, or I think it was just a little misjudgment, but ultimately I’m not going to change the way I’m going to race because of that.”
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