McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says the team cannot accept the collision between its drivers in today’s sprint race.
Lando Norris knocked team mate Oscar Piastri into a spin while trying to pass him for fourth place at turn five on the final lap. Having been on course to score nine points the team took just one, as Norris finished eighth.The stewards issued no penalty after ruling neither driver was predominantly to blame but Stella made it clear the incident should not have happened.
“The sprint race was a race that was giving us some good points,” Stella told Sky. “In a moment in which we are not in condition to win, still we were in condition to score good points, and we saw two McLarens having contact.
“Basically [they went] out of the race. Lando could score one point, but definitely that’s not enough.
“Seeing two McLarens making contact like that is simply not acceptable.”
Norris and Piastri have clashed previously, notably last year in the Canadian and Singapore grands prix. Stella said he will remind the pair of their obligations towards the team.
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“This is something that we will discuss with our drivers,” he said. “We will do it in private. We will reiterate that the team interest is far bigger than any of us.
“There’s no ego, there’s no person that is bigger than the interest of the McLaren Formula 1 team. This will be reiterated. I’m sure, like always, these will be conversations that will lead to the team being more united and even stronger.”
Norris revealed he apologised to he team for the collision. “You have two sides,” he said. “One is what the stewards say and I think that’s just a fair reasoning of what happened, no one’s to blame.
“But I did apologise because it was still me that was the one attacking, as I have the right to do – if I just sat there and was boring like I should be then nothing would have happened. So really it’s still my fault but I deserve to go for the space and I still believe I had the right for it.”
Piastri said “it was clear that those kind of things can’t happen.”
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