Lando Norris has revealed that McLaren held him accountable for the first-lap clash in Singapore between him and Oscar Piastri, and that there are \u201crepercussions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Norris took advantage of a small gap left open by Piastri at the start in Singapore, with a move that resulted in the two McLarens making contact and causing minor damage to Norris\u2019 MCL39.<\/p>\n
Lando Norris: McLaren talks held me accountable for Singapore clash<\/p>\n
The contact between the two McLaren drivers was clearly inadvertent, largely caused by Norris tapping the back of Max Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull and correcting into the side of Piastri\u2019s car, but the British driver chose not to cede position to the Australian.<\/p>\n
While Piastri took to team radio to ask about whether McLaren was \u201ccool with Lando barging me out of the way\u201d, Norris set off up the road and, with McLaren choosing not to intervene, Piastri was left annoyed by the decision as he labeled it \u201cunfair\u201d over team radio.<\/p>\n
While tensions had calmed by the time the chequered flag fell, with Norris and Piastri taking third and fourth respectively to clinch the team\u2019s second consecutive Constructors\u2019 Championship, it was clear an intense team debrief awaited McLaren once the heat of the weekend had dissipated.<\/p>\n
While McLaren<\/a> had opted against any sort of scolding of Norris during the Grand Prix, as well as team boss Andrea Stella remaining extremely diplomatic towards his drivers when he spoke to the media afterward, Piastri revealed to PlanetF1.com and other accredited media at the United States Grand Prix that the British driver had taken responsibility for the contact.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a lot of discussions, as you would expect, and very productive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re very clear on how we want to go racing as a team, and that includes going forward, and the incident we had in Singapore isn\u2019t how we want to go racing.<\/p>\n \u201cLando has taken responsibility for that and so have the team, so I think it\u2019s quite clear for us as a team that how Lap 1 unfolded wasn\u2019t how we want\u00a0to\u00a0go\u00a0racing.\u201d<\/p>\n With Norris speaking to the media moments later, he was asked about the potential ramifications for him for the contact between the two cars.<\/p>\n Norris bluntly replied, \u201cThat\u2019s got nothing to do with you guys [the media],\u201d as he kicked off his session.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, there were talks; that was inevitable.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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 me and on avoiding something, let\u2019s say, definitely avoiding anything worse happening than what did.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the last thing I want, something like that to happen to cause these kinds of controversial talks after a race.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, I put just as much risk on me putting myself out of the race, as I do whoever I\u2019m racing against, whether it\u2019s Oscar or anyone else. So it\u2019s clearly something I want to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked to elaborate on the repercussion, Norris chose not to, but confirmed \u201cthere are consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n Norris\u2019 opportunistic move on Piastri could be viewed as having been borderline, and the resulting contact was in breach of the established \u2018papaya rules\u2019 that have governed the way Norris and Piastri race each other, with the main target of these rules being to avoid contact between the two cars.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been one of my strengths since coming into Formula 1, avoiding contact in general, and keeping myself in the race, and those kinds of things,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think one thing we\u2019ve 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, and that\u2019s a lot of the reason why we\u2019re a stronger team than everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n Given that the FIA stewards didn\u2019t view the incident as being worthy of investigation or punishment, and the team didn\u2019t point the finger at him on the day itself, Norris was asked why he felt he had been held accountable in the aftermath.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that the simple answer is that there was contact between the two cars, and that\u2019s something that we always want to avoid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s say the rule is not to crash with each other. This wasn\u2019t a crash; it was something much, much smaller, but we still don\u2019t even want to get it to that point, because it causes these kinds of things, and that\u2019s never a good thing.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we want to avoid anything like we had in Singapore. But I think, in the end, the understanding is that it\u2019s racing and it\u2019s difficult to always be perfect. I didn\u2019t want what happened to happen, but I\u2019m never gonna let go of an opportunity like there was.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a gap, and I went for it, and what happened happened, but nothing changes from how we go racing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just that we and the team want to avoid those kinds of things happening again. Simply, the reason was that there was contact between two McLaren cars, and Zak [Brown] and Andrea didn\u2019t want that to happen. As teammates, we don\u2019t want that to happen.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s the reason why I was held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n Oscar Piastri v Lando Norris: The F1 2025 McLaren scores<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0Has McLaren really been playing favourites in Norris v Piastri title fight?<\/a><\/p>\n