Lando Norris says he let McLaren down and has taken responsibility for his collision with Oscar Piastri in the Sprint at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Norris and Piastri made contact on the last lap of Saturday’s shortened race when battling for fourth, which the stewards did not penalise either driver for.
However, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella labelled the incident as “not acceptable” while Norris was not keen to talk about the collision on Saturday and told Sky Sports F1: “As a team we all spoke about it. I apologised but that’s all you need to know.”
However, following his fourth-place finish in Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, Norris changed his tune when speaking to the written media.
“It’s pretty straightforward. I can’t attempt what I did. I should never have attempted in the first place, even if the move was on. I’ve got to think of the team that I represent more than myself,” he said.
“It was a mistake on my part, and I let down the team. I’ve also apologised to all of them, I owe them all an apology, and I will do better next time.”
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Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok dissects who was at fault for the collision between the two McLaren’s which saw Oscar Piastri crash out of the Singapore GP Sprint
Stella: Conversations with drivers not finished
During Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix, Norris asked several times if he could aid team-mate Piastri in any way during the closing stages of the race.
Piastri was attempting to catch and overtake Lewis Hamilton at the time of the radio calls, suggesting Norris was querying whether he should back up the Ferrari driver. In the end, Piastri overtook Hamilton without any help to finish fifth behind Norris.
Stella says he was “very encouraged” by Norris’ willingness to aid his team-mate but more talks will be held before the United States Grand Prix in Austin next weekend.
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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella reacts to the Sprint collision between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the Singapore Grand Prix
“We are aligned as to how we want to lead this team forward in a joint effort between the team and the drivers,” he said.
“The conversations that we are having, they are not finished but it’s not because we need to go back discussing if Lando was alongside Oscar, that’s not the interesting bit.
“For me the interesting bit is a reflection that all the stakeholders, the team, the drivers will have to make around leading together the team, embracing constantly from inside the cockpit the interest of the team, as something that is superior to any particular singular individual interest.
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Lando Norris was downbeat after his performance in Singapore and hopes for better upgrades on the car going forward
“While the conversations from this point of view, they are not concluded and there’s more we can do to become a more united and even stronger team, I’m pleased that Lando at some stage in the race adopted this way of thinking.
“This is what I expect as a team principal, this is what the 1000 people that work at McLaren expect from our drivers so it’s good that we read this example. I expect definitely more of that in the future, independently of the fact that they will be heard in the radio, or they will happen behind the closed door in every meeting or in the way we approach our race plan.”
Formula 1 next heads to The Americas for another triple header with the United States Grand Prix in Austin up first on October 23-25, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
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