
Lando Norris revealed he will face “repercussions until the end of the season” for the first-lap contact with McLaren team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri in the Singapore Grand Prix.
However, neither Norris nor Piastri – who are separated by 22 points at the top of the Drivers’ Championship with six races to go heading into this weekend’s United States Grand Prix – have said what those consequences are.
In an unexpected development two weeks on from the incident on the opening lap of the last race which saw the two McLarens bang wheels battling over third place, Norris said the team held him “accountable” for the incident after conducting their post-race review.
That marked a change from the day of the race when McLaren had initially felt that Norris had only banged into Piastri as a direct result of first tagging the back of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull ahead of them.
But Norris revealed on Thursday: “Things were reviewed and there are and will be repercussions for me until the end of the season.
“It’s not like I’ve got away with anything, but it was also an incident that was small and there was potential to try and avoid it.
“I said after the race, I can’t afford to make contact and have anything happen like what happened because I put just as much risk on my whole championship from something going wrong as I do on whoever I might be racing against.
“Of course, repercussions for myself but otherwise the engagement and how we go racing is the same as it’s always been.”
Piastri said his team-mate took “responsibility” for the clash in discussions with McLaren after the Singapore race weekend.
“The talks from Singapore were very productive with everyone involved,” said Piastri, whose championship lead over Norris was trimmed to 22 points after his team-mate beat him to third in Singapore.
“The conclusion was what happened in Singapore is not how we want to go racing as a team and ultimately Lando has taken responsibility for that. So that’s in the past now and the rules wont change because of that.
“Ultimately we have got that framework in place for a reason and there’s no reason for that to change now. It has been dealt with.”
When asked what repercussions Norris had been referring to, Piastri replied: “I can’t say what the repercussions are, it’s for the team to know.
“Ultimately he has taken responsibility for it and there is a form of repercussion for that.”
Norris: Team ‘fair’ to hold me accountable for Singapore contact
It is the second time the McLaren pair have made contact this season after Norris ran into the back of Piastri during the closing stages of the Canadian Grand Prix.
Norris immediately took the blame for that collision but did not in Singapore until talks took place following the race, where he finished third behind George Russell and Verstappen, but ahead of Piastri.
The Briton admitted “sometimes the repercussions are not positive” when put to him that McLaren generally come out of difficult situations in a positive manner.
He added: “[The ramifications] have got nothing to do with you guys. There were talks, that was inevitable.
“The team held me accountable for what happened, which I think is fair, then we made progress from there on understanding what the repercussions were for myself to avoid anything worse happening than then what did.”
Both drivers say they will continue to race hard until the end of the season but incidents such as Singapore need to be avoided.
“The last thing I want is for something like that to happen, to cause this kind of controversial talks after the race,” Norris continued.
“At the same time, I put just as much risk on me putting myself out of the race as I do whoever I’m racing against, whether it’s Oscar or anyone else.
“It’s clearly something I want to avoid. It’s been one of my strengths since coming into Formula 1, avoiding contact in general and keeping myself in the race and those kind of things.
“One thing we’ve always done good 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. That’s a lot of the reason for why we’re a stronger team than everyone else.”
Piastri not expecting redresses on track
McLaren rejected Piastri’s radio request for action to be taken against his team-mate during the race and the stewards did not intervene either.
The Australian fumed on the radio and said that McLaren’s decision was “not fair”.
Just like his post-race Singapore interviews, he remained level-headed about the situation during media day ahead of this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, stating it’s “very tough” to judge whether swapping positions is the right thing to do.
“I’m not expecting things to be redressed on track any time or every time. Ultimately, we know how we’re expected to go racing, and if we don’t that, there’s consequences for that,” said Piastri.
“I’m not going to change anything in how I go racing. I don’t think what happened was purposeful. I think it was just a slight misjudgement. Ultimately, I’m not going to change how I go racing because of that.”
Put to him that with only six races of the season to go would be it not natural for both himself and Norris to become more ‘selfish’ as they each attempt to win their first world title, Piastri said: “As drivers there an element of selfishness but it’s clear for us if we take that too far or if we do something that’s not within the interests of the team – and ultimately what happened in Singapore wasn’t in the interests of anyone, no one was meaning for that to happen – there are consequences for that.
“You can be selfish, but you need to expect that that’s not always going to work for you.”
Sky Sports F1’s live United States GP schedule
Friday October 17
6pm: United States GP Practice One (practice starts at 6.30pm)*
8.30pm: Team Principals’ Press Conference
10pm: United States GP Sprint Qualifying (qualifying starts at 10.30pm*)
Saturday October 18
5pm: United States GP Sprint build-up
6pm: UNITED STATES GP SPRINT
7pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook
9pm: United States GP Qualifying build-up*
10pm: UNITED STATES GP QUALIFYING*
12am (Sunday morning): Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday October 19
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: United States GP build-up*
8pm: THE UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: United States GP reaction
11pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1 are in North America for the United States Grand Prix in Austin this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
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