United States GP: How will McLaren handle latest Lando Norris-Oscar Piastri collision after Austin Sprint | F1 News

With McLaren’s handling of the Drivers’ Championship battle between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris already in the spotlight, disaster struck as the pair both retired from Saturday’s United States Grand Prix Sprint after another first-lap collision.

Almost two weeks on from Norris making contact with Piastri during an opening-lap overtake at the Singapore Grand Prix, an incident which the Brit would later be sanctioned for by the team, the roles were somewhat reversed in Austin.

Piastri, who leads Norris by 22 points at the top of the standings, attempted to cut back underneath and overtake his team-mate at the first corner of the Circuit of The Americas, but found Nico Hulkenberg in his path, suffering a heavy collision with Sauber that sent the McLaren flying into his team-mate, leaving both papaya cars with terminal damage.

Pole-sitter Max Verstappen cruised to victory for Red Bull in a result that took him within 55 points of Piastri and just 33 points back from Norris. The Dutchman would then later on Saturday take pole position for Sunday’s full-length race to further emphasise just how big a threat he is becoming in the title battle.

It was a nightmare scenario for McLaren in the Sprint, gifting Verstappen a decent points gain in a race that he likely would have struggled to keep them behind in had they made it through the first corner.

McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella both initially blamed Hulkenberg for the crash, but the former would later retract his criticism of the Sauber driver.

Former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick disagreed, suggesting that Piastri had made “a bad judgement call”, while her fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok said McLaren are in a “tricky” situation after setting a “precedent” by punishing Norris for what occurred in Singapore.

Brown blames Hulkenberg before U-turn

There were similarities to the Singapore incident in that Norris had tried to overtake Piastri up the inside and made contact with Verstappen ahead of them, which sent him sideways into his team-mate.

On this occasion, Piastri was attempting to pass Norris but found Hulkenberg’s Sauber on his inside, making much more significant contact that almost flipped his car over and sent it thudding into Norris.

In both situations, it’s fair to assume that if there hadn’t been any other cars in the vicinity, contact between the McLarens would have been avoided.

However, while no one suggested Verstappen was to blame in Singapore, in Austin, Brown and Stella were highly critical of Hulkenberg, who was battling Fernando Alonso up the inside of Turn 1.

Brown, speaking to Sky Sports F1 from the McLaren pit wall while the Sprint was still running, said: “That was terrible. Neither of our drivers to blame there.

“That’s some amateur-hour driving by some drivers up there at the front, (they) wacked out two guys.

“I want to see the replay again but clearly Nico Hulkenberg drove into Oscar and he had no business being where he was, he went into his left-rear tyre.”

However, when asked by Sky Sports F1 whether he had altered his opinion a few hours later, Brown said: “I’ve reviewed it, I think I’ve changed my view. I can’t really put that on Nico.

“In the heat of the moment, obviously pretty bothered what I saw there, a lot of incidents in Turn One. But I don’t think that’s on Nico.”

What remained unclear was whether Brown thought it was just a racing incident, or rather that Piastri was in some way responsible.

Stella, speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the Sprint, said: “It’s surprising that some drivers with a lot of experience don’t act with more prudence – go to the first corner, make sure you don’t damage competitors then carry on.”

In his media briefing after qualifying, Stella confirmed that Norris and Piastri were happy for the incident to be reviewed after the weekend, but stood by his earlier assessment that “more prudence” from the drivers behind “would have been helpful”.

Norris softens defence of Piastri

Norris was initially extremely dismissive of a suggestion from a Sky Italy reporter that Piastri might face some sort of action over the incident.

He said: “He got hit, no? He got hit, right? So why is it his fault? Oscar got hit by another car. Oscar got hit, it can’t be his fault.”

However, after watching back the incident, Norris appeared to take a slightly different approach as he said he would get the chance to “understand a few more things” when the team conduct a full review next week.

Speaking after qualifying second for Sunday’s race, Norris said: “It’s like all things from what we do as a team, it’ll be reviewed. I think it takes a bit more time to understand everything and, certainly, just before qualifying and probably before the race tomorrow is not the best time.

“I think things will be reviewed just to understand a few more things. But, apart from that, it’s nothing I can do. I just have to crack on and do my own thing.

Piastri admitted that had he have been aware of the positioning of the cars behind him, he might have “done something a little bit different”.

The Australian told Sky Sports F1: “I think it is just a racing incident. Lando and I were a long way away from the apex and it’s impossible to see everything at that point, so if I had have known that there was three-wide behind me, maybe I would have done something a little bit different. But you have to trust your gut and your instinct, and that’s what I did.”

‘It was avoidable’ – Patrick criticises Piastri

Sky Sports F1’s Patrick argued that Piastri could have yielded to Norris and avoided the risk he took by attempting to cut back beneath his team-mate.

“We were watching this at speed and it both looked like they slowed down so much and Oscar was being really careful,” Patrick said.

“This is what can happen sometimes if you are trying to stay away from each other so much and doing something outside of your norm of possibly racing around the outside and going at it that way.

“Inside the cockpit, it’s such a different view from what we see but everyone is racing into the first corner with as much speed as possible and he slowed up any extra.

“It was avoidable. He could have fallen in line behind Lando and carried on. Instead, he got invited into that gap. It was a bad judgement call.”

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle sympathised with Piastri over the challenging nature of Turn 1, but said that responsibility for the multi-car collision ultimately rested with the Australian.

“I drove here by myself a few weeks ago in an F1 car and could barely see the first corner when I had nothing else to worry about,” Brundle said.

“For Oscar Piastri, if you make that move with the pack behind you, there’s a very high chance somebody will be there and slam into the side of you, so I will have to pin that one on Oscar.”

Do McLaren need to reverse ‘repercussions’?

The biggest story of the weekend before the Sprint collision had been McLaren’s decision to reveal Norris had been sanctioned for the Singapore incident but then refuse to share exactly what advantage they were giving to Piastri.

Interviews with the drivers and team bosses had revealed that Norris’ punishment was a sporting penalty and that it would be implemented at the United States Grand Prix, and potentially across the five remaining rounds of the season that follow.

Brown’s insistence that the measures would have “zero interference” with racing on a Sunday led many to assume that Piastri would be given an advantage in qualifying, allowing him to choose whether he would prefer to take to the track before or after Norris for the most crucial runs – and that appeared to play out in both qualifying sessions in Austin.

Former F1 world champion Jenson Button and his fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Chandhok debated after Saturday’s Sprint whether McLaren now needed to remove or reverse the sanctions applied to Norris.

Chandhok said: “In my opinion, I wouldn’t have done anything here but I wouldn’t have done anything for Singapore because that was also a lap 1 racing incident.

“The tricky thing they have got themselves into internally is by doing what they did after Singapore and publicly declaring it, it’s set a precedent.”

Button added: “If I was a team principal, no because it’s one of those things. From what Zak has said so far, other drivers have driven into Oscar.

“From a racing driver’s point of view, it was more on Oscar. Lando’s not even in this conversation. He was just unlucky to be there.”

With a back-to-back race following in Mexico City next weekend, all eyes will be Norris and Piastri at Thursday’s media day to see if McLaren reveal a change of plan regarding the sanctions.

Sky Sports F1’s live United States GP schedule

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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

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